It is hard to believe as the new decade dawns--not to mention the new millennium--that the outlook for Southern California's economy can be so bright.
Ten years ago this region was entering its worst recession. From 1990 through 1993, half a million jobs disappeared in Southern California as the aerospace and defense industries shrank.
B The gloom was thickened by smoke from brush fires and riots. Gloating by investment analysts and authors on the East Coast was incessant. "California will never duplicate those high-paying aerospace jobs," said one Wall Streeter with typical foresight.
So California hasn't duplicated the old jobs--it has gone beyond them. It has invented a new economy based on technology, foreign trade, entertainment and business services ranging from software to finance.
It is an economy based on small companies. Los Angeles County alone leads the United States with 667,300 business establishments.
And it is an economy poised for unprecedented advances in the decade ahead--if it can avoid some serious pitfalls.
As the century begins, the region is well-placed. Many of its firms are in high tech, whether biotech in La Jolla, medical instruments in Irvine, multimedia in Venice or computer networking in Calabasas.
The beauty of high tech is that it contains multipliers. High-tech companies spark demand for professional services, explains economist Ross DeVol of Santa Monica's Milken Institute--"legal, financial, accounting, engineering and testing services along with management consulting grow in the local economy," DeVol says.
Southern California has many other multipliers. Take food. This region does not produce, nor eat, a bland diet. Rather, the landscape is filled with producers of specialties of Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East--and that's not to mention the nation's largest cheese-producing company, Dairy Farms of America in Corona.
Our geography has multipliers. Ten years ago, the focus of the region was on Los Angeles County. But the '90s saw Orange County and San Diego become lodestars of technology and trade. In San Bernardino and Riverside counties, job growth continued through the decade. The west San Fernando Valley rose to economic prominence; now the Ontario airport area is booming.
