No Sunshine Yet on L.A. Economy

L.A. Business Journal has the bad employment forecast:

The next 18 months appear bleak for the Los Angeles economy as unemployment tops out at 13 percent, according to yet another grim forecast released Tuesday from Beacon Economics on behalf of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.

The county's unemployment rate last month dipped to 11.3 percent from a record 11.6 percent in May, but that's not considered an sign of improvement. Economists expect many residents have grown discouraged and left the work force.

Christopher Thornberg, Beacon Economics principal and forecast co-author, predicts that Los Angeles won't see significant economic growth until the fourth quarter of 2010 at the earliest. In the meantime, almost 300,000 payroll jobs will be lost from the 2007 employment peak.

The Business Journal also has bad news for those who want to sell or dip into the value of their real estate in the next year or so:

The forecast states the median price of existing single family homes in Los Angeles County will bottom out at $234,000 in late 2010 before resuming growth in 2011.

While housing price falls are invariably reported as bad economic news these days, that isn't considering the position of those who might be in the market to buy.

Not even our mighty airport is free from the downturn these days, as the Daily Breeze reports:

Once ranked as the world's third-busiest airport earlier this decade, Los Angeles International Airport dropped to sixth place among its contemporaries in 2008...LAX was previously ranked the fifth-busiest airport from 2002 to 2007, and was third in world in 2000 and 2001. LAX served 59.5 million travelers in 2008, a significant drop from the 68 million passengers who passed through the airport during its peak in 2000.

Thanks to the L.A. Weekly's great "L.A. Daily" blog for guiding me to these stories.

The image associated with this post was taken by Flickr user nathangibbs. It was used under user Creative Commons license.