Business & Economy

Employment by sector: L.A. County health care jobs growing, construction and retail rebounding

Nuran Alteir, Wendy Lee & Chris Keller | Published Sept. 13, 2013

Five years after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection, Los Angeles County's unemployment rate remains at 9.9 percent, 2.5 percentage points higher than the national rate. According to Robert Kleinhenz, chief economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, it could take years before local job growth reaches the peak levels seen before what has now become known as the Great Recession.

In 2007, before the recession, Los Angeles County had 4.12 million non-farm jobs, according to the state's Employment Development Department. Last year, the number of non-farm jobs in the county was 3.86 million.

"The pace of job growth has been really slow," Kleinhenz said. "Recovery has been slow in part because the financial crisis has hampered activity all the way around."

The graph below shows the last 10 years of Los Angeles County employment data from the California Employment Development Department, arranged by sector. At a glance, it reveals which sectors provided the largest portion of jobs. When each sector is viewed one-by-one, you can clearly see which industries were hardest hit by the recession (manufacturing, construction and retail), which have rebounded (arts and entertainment and food service), and which seem to have emerged unscathed (health care and social assistance).

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Using the interactive: The graph below shows the last 10 years of Los Angeles County employment data by sector from the California Employment Development Department. At a glance, it reveals which sectors provided the largest portion of jobs. Use the legend menu to see how each was affected by the Great Recession.

Employment by sector: L.A. County health care jobs growing, construction and retail rebounding
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