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Tag: Job Loss

The Work Behind Work: Combatting Homelessness with Jobs

February 14, 2024 / By Seth Pickens, Daniel Flaming, Manuel Gomez and Ana Alvarez

The most common reason unhoused individuals give for why they do not have a place of their own to live is unemployment and lack of income. Homelessness is primarily a problem of income. Upstream interventions that lead to employment will significantly reduce the number of men, women and children who experience homelessness.
Image of the a McDonald's Restaurant sign in Southern California by Daniel Flaming, April 29, 2023. Owned by Economic Roundtable, creation of ERt staff.

Hungry Cooks: Poverty Wages and Homelessness in the Fast Food Industry

May 1, 2023 / By Daniel Flaming and Patrick Burns / Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

The fast food industry is a poverty employer, with a larger share of its workers in poverty than any other industry. All low-wage workers face some level of risk that they will become homeless. This risk is compounded in the fast food industry by the combination of low wages, part-time work and employee churn. These interlocking hazards undercut workers’ ability to pay their rent.
Image of the downtown Los Angeles skyline and falling figure, created by Daniel Flaming, 2023. Created for the ERt report "Breaking the Fall: Successful Homeless Interventions in the Covid Pandemic." Owned by Economic Roundtable, creation of ERt staff.

Breaking the Fall: Successful Homeless Interventions in the Covid Pandemic

December 14, 2022 / By Daniel Flaming, Seth Pickens and Patrick Burns / Economic Roundtable

Breaking the Fall – Covid Interventions Prevented Homelessness Struggling workers are either everyone’s responsibility now or everyone’s problem later. When poorly paid workers become jobless at the thin edge of the job market and then unable to pay rent, homeless destitution follows. In fact, we are equipped with the tools we need to protect workers from the sharper edges of joblessness and to combat homelessness. 
Photograph of container ships at port in San Pedro Bay (Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach) taken by Daniel Flaming, Economic Roundtable, March 10, 2022. Tour of the ports arranged and led by ILWU Coast Committeeman Frank Ponce De Leon. Owned by Economic Roundtable, creation of ERt staff.

Someone Else’s Ocean: Dockworkers, Foreign Shippers and Economic Outcomes

June 29, 2022 / By Daniel Flaming and Patrick Burns / International Longshore & Warehouse Union Coast Longshore Division

Ports and the Economy Ports should be two-way gates – goods enter and they leave. But in the San Pedro Bay, foreign shippers kicked the gate until it broke – goods are coming in but not going out, harming the environment in port cities, eliminating jobs of California residents and causing long-term harm to local economies and businesses. 
Photograph of "Pasadena Job Center, Your Local Source of Labor" Temporary Help Agency (500 N Lake Ave, Pasadena, CA 91101) taken by Daniel Flaming, Economic Roundtable, January 6, 2021. Owned by Economic Roundtable, creation of ERt staff.

Locked Out: Unemployment and Homelessness in the Covid Economy

January 11, 2021 / By Daniel Flaming, Anthony W. Orlando, Patrick Burns and Seth Pickens / Economic Roundtable

COVID-driven loss of jobs and employment income will cause the number of homeless workers to increase each year through 2023. Without large-scale, government employment programs the Pandemic Recession is projected to cause twice as much homelessness as the 2008 Great Recession. The Economic Roundtable used data from the 2008 Great Recession to estimate the linkage between job loss and homelessness and forecast the amount and type of pandemic-driven homelessness in Los Angeles, California and the United States. 
Photograph courtesy of the Los Angeles Times, originally accompanying "Op-Ed: Two-thirds of L.A.’s homeless are trying to find work. Let’s help them" By Daniel Flaming June 6, 2019.

Rapid Re-employment Offers an Escape from Cardboard City: Homelessness Is an Income Problem as well as a Housing Problem

June 6, 2019 / By Daniel Flaming / Los Angeles Times

More taxpayer dollars are being spent on homeless housing and services, yet homelessness in Los Angeles County increased 12% last year and chronic homelessness is up 17%. Society needs to do better. Homelessness is an income problem as well as a housing problem — and both need to be addressed to solve L.A.’s 
Photograph by Ed Yourdon, "Recession special at Gray's Papaya shop." Photograph uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons on March 12, 2009, taken on March 10, 2009. Protected under the CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED license. The Economic Roundtable has not changed, remixed, transformed, or built upon the material, and is not using it for commercial purposes.

Ebbing Tides in the Golden State: Impacts of the 2008 Recession on California and Los Angeles County

June 8, 2009 / By Daniel Flaming, Patrick Burns and Michael Matsunaga / Economic Roundtable, the California Endowment

The most concrete characteristic of a recession is that demand disappears for some of the commodities produced by workers and unwanted unemployment is imposed on a large segment of the labor force. With growing job losses in the current recession it is important to know, whose boat falls when the economic tide recedes? 
Photography by Waltarrrrr, "1992 Los Angeles Riots". Uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons on April 29, 2012, taken on May 2, 1992 in South Los Angeles. Protected under the CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED license.

South Los Angeles Rising: Opportunities for Economic Self-Sufficiency Ten Years After the 1992 Civil Unrest

May 6, 2002 / By Mark Drayse and Daniel Flaming / Economic Roundtable

This briefing paper reports on business recovery in buildings damaged during the 1992 civil unrest, the availability of jobs in different areas of Los Angeles, and changes in South Los Angeles’ industry base since 1992. Where were buildings damaged during the civil unrest located? Most buildings damaged during the civil unrest were located on commercial streets in high poverty neighborhoods in South Los Angeles. 
Photograph "P1060350-Edit.jpg [Poverty is a Cage]" by Neil Ballantyne. Uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons on May 29, 2011, taken on May 28, 2011. Protected under the CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED license. The Economic Roundtable has not changed, remixed, transformed, or built upon the material, and is not using it for commercial purposes.

The Cage of Poverty

September 1, 2000 / By Daniel Flaming, Mark Drayse and Peter Force / Economic Roundtable

In his 1963 letter from the Birmingham jail Martin Luther King, Jr. described the despair of people “smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society.” It is important to understand the extent to which this image of entrapment still describes the wage-earning lives of the working poor as they try to support their families. 
Los Angeles County, Department of Public Social Services, 2014.

On the Edge: A Progress Report on Welfare to Work in Los Angeles

January 1, 1999 / By Daniel Flaming, Mark Drayse and Peter Force / Economic Roundtable

The loss of a welfare safety net for most adults for most of their lives makes the quality of jobs available to the working poor and their success in finding and keeping jobs increasingly important. The economic and civic life of the Los Angeles region will be shaped by connections that are made, or fail to be made, between the growing ranks of working poor and opportunities for steady, sustaining, productive employment. 
Photograph by Maggie Mbroh, "Redondo Beach/ Redondo Marina." Photograph uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons on May 2, 2014, taken on April 26, 2014. Protected by the CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED license. The Economic Roundtable has not changed, remixed, transformed, or built upon the photograph, and Is not using It for commercial purposes.

South Bay Economic Adjustment Strategy

November 1, 1998 / By Daniel Flaming, Mark Drayse, Michael Beltramo-Beltramo and Associates, Tom Jirovsky-Kosmont and Associates Inc, Frank Taplin-Kosmont and Associates, David Rigby-UCLA Department of Geography and John Wilson-USC Department of Geography / the County of Los Angeles South Bay Communities and Community Development Commission

The South Bay Economic Adjustment Strategy has been prepared to help elected officials, public sector staff, business leaders, and citizens take coordinated, effective action to recover jobs lost because of defense cutbacks. The strategy has been prepared under a grant from the Office of Economic Adjustment in the Department of Defense that was administered by Los Angeles County’s Community Development Commission. 
Photograph by Wikimedia user Jengod, "Picture of Harbor Gateway neighborhood sign in Los Angeles, near Rosecrans Blvd." Uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons October 30, 2011. "Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License." Protected under the the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license,

The Gateway Cities Economy: Impacts of Aerospace Restructuring

February 17, 1998 / By Mark Drayse, Daniel Flaming, David Rigby-UCLA Department of Geography and Michael Beltramo-Beltramo and Associates / Economic Roundtable

This report analyzes the impacts of aerospace restructuring on the Gateway Cities. The analysis draws upon Department of Defense contract data bases, local industry employment data, and input-output modeling of the local economy. The Gateways Cities region of Los Angeles County is comprised of twenty-seven cities that have formed their own Council of Governments. 
Photograph "Clondalkin dole protest" by The Workers Party of Ireland (no individual photographer mentioned). Uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons on August 15, 2010, taken on September 10, 2009 outside the Social Welfare Local Office, Clondalkin (County Dublin), Ireland. Protected under the CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED license.

Survival Skills: Welfare to Work in Los Angeles

January 1, 1998 / By Mark Drayse, Cher-Amie Inocentes, Daniel Flaming and Peter Force / Economic Roundtable

Recent welfare reform legislation mandates that aid recipients become employed and economically self-sufficient. The allowable interval of continuous assistance is limited to 24 months for current recipients and 18 months for new recipients, with a lifetime limit of five years on welfare. At least 150,000 current welfare recipients in Los Angeles County must move into the workforce, securing at least partial employment by December 1999. 
Photograph "Long Beach McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Plant; 28.07.1995" by Aero Icarus, Zürich, Switzerland, obtained and used 1995. Uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons on August 26, 2010, taken on July 28, 1995. Protected under the CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED license.

Economic Restructuring in Long Beach: Opportunities and Challenges in a Post-Aerospace Economy

September 1, 1997 / By Mark Drayse, Daniel Flaming and David L. Rigby,UCLA Lewis Center For Regional Policy Studies / Economic Roundtable

The City of Long Beach and other centers of aerospace production that reaped the rewards of the 1980s defense-spending boom must now confront the realities of restructuring. Since World War II, the Douglas Aircraft plant made Long Beach an important center of the US aerospace industry and dominated the local economy. In 1992, the Long Beach aerospace industry employed 36,100 workers, which was 22 percent of the city's total employment. Almost all of these workers were employed by McDonnell Douglas. Long Beach aerospace workers earned a total payroll of over $1.5 billion, which was 30 percent of the city's total payroll. These figures understate the total impact of aerospace on the Long Beach economy, through linkages with firms in other industries that provide inputs to the aerospace industry, and purchases of goods and services by aerospace workers.
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Long Beach Business: 1996 Long Beach Business Survey

October 1, 1996 / By Mark Drayse and Daniel Flaming / Economic Roundtable

The 1996 Business Survey is the second annual survey of businesses undertaken by the City of Long Beach to guide and strengthen business outreach and retention efforts. The purpose is to Identify the concerns, needs and opportunities of businesses in order to strengthen City programs for supporting Long Beach's economic base and respond to the needs of individual businesses and facilitate access to City services to help firms remain viable and competitive.

Post Cold War Frontiers: Defense Downsizing and Conversion in Los Angeles

January 1, 1996 / By Michael Oden-Rutgers University Project on Regional and Industrial Economics, Ann Markusen-Rutgers University Project on Regional and Industrial Economics, Daniel Flaming and Mark Drayse / Economic Roundtable

This study examines how firms, workers, and regional economic development institution are dealing with the severe effects of defense downsizing in the Los Angeles region. Between 1988 and 1994 the Los Angeles region lost 127,000 jobs in defense-related industries, including aircraft, missiles, instruments, and electronics. The long economic slump set off by defense cuts has incited a major debate between the advocates of regional institution building and proactive economic development and those arguing for the laissez-faire approach of reducing taxes, wages, and environmental costs. 
Photograph by Kevin Haggerty, "Queen Mary" uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons on November 21, 2005, taken on November 20, 2005. Protected under the CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED license.

Long Beach Business: 1994 Long Beach Business Survey

April 27, 1995 / By Daniel Flaming / Economic Roundtable

SYNOPSIS Purpose The 1994 Business Survey was initiated by the City of Long Beach to guide and strengthen its business outreach and retention efforts. Technical guidance, data analysis, and report preparation was carried out by the Economic Roundtable. The purpose was to: Identify the concerns, needs and opportunities of businesses in order to strengthen City programs for supporting Long Beach’s economic base. 
The USS Arizona Memorial glows in the night in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 6, 2006. DoD photo by Petty Officer 1st Class James E. Foehl, U.S Navy.

Technology and Jobs: Defense Conversion in the Los Angeles Region

February 8, 1994 / By Daniel Flaming and Mark Drayse / Economic Roundtable

SYNOPSIS This survey of industry perceptions of defense conversion in the Los Angeles region followed two years after the bench mark survey of aerospace firms conducted to prepare the “Economic Adjustment Strategy for Defense Reductions.” The purpose was to explore such questions as: Are aerospace firms in the greater Los Angeles region becoming less dependent on defense contracts? 

Los Angeles County Economic Adjustment Strategy for Defense Reductions

April 1, 1992 / By Daniel Flaming, Michael Beltramo-Beltramo and Associates, Odessa Dubinsky, Elizabeth Reid, Katherine Bulow-Bulow And Associates, David Hensley-UCLA Business Forcasting Project and Allen J. Scott-UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies / Los Angeles County Community Development Commission, United States Department of Commerce: Economic Development Administration

Background An interdisciplinary research team analyzed information about the labor market, economy, industries, and defense linkages of Los Angeles County. The report recommends an economic adjustment strategy to reduce severe job losses projected as a result of cutbacks in defense funding for Los Angeles County industries. 

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