"Our industries are changing very rapidly," said Kyser of the L.A. County Economic Development Corp. "You see it in the papers every day, but we look at the headlines and tend not to think much about it."
Kyser said each local economy was unique, and that California had "special issues" such as runaway film production and high worker compensation costs that have driven away many good-paying jobs. Those need to be addressed in specific ways, he said. "This type of report starts the dialogue," he said.
The jobs picture may be improving in California, he added, as jobs in aerospace and export industries grow.
At the Economic Policy Institute, Ettlinger said unless the low-wage job shift identified by the institute was reversed, the nation's wage base would shrink and individual workers would have an increasingly difficult time finding quality jobs.
"That means a declining standard of living," he said. "People rely on wages for their quality of life. If the nation's drifting into having lower wage levels, that's disturbing for everyone."
The trend could be slowed or reversed through changes in public policy, Ettlinger said, suggesting raising the minimum wage, attaching labor standards to trade agreements to discourage outsourcing of manufacturing jobs or encouraging unionization in low-paying sectors.
"Public investment could also increase productivity, which should boost wages," he said.
