That's the good news from the Los Angeles Economic DevelopmentCorp. The bad news is that—due in large part to those aerospacecutbacks, and a nettlesome shortage of commercial manufacturingspace for sale or rent--the 643,400 figure is a whopping 243,800under the peak manufacturing job year of 1987, when 887,200 suchjobs drove the county's economy.

Chicago, which held the top position in the nation from 1994 to1996, had 639,500 manufacturing jobs last year, says Ken Ackbarali,an LAEDC economist. Detroit had 446,800, followed by Philadelphiawith 303,200 and New York with 302,100. Ackbarali notes that LACounty has about 9.7 million residents and will pass the 10 millionmark in 2001.

South Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley ranked first andsecond, respectively, with manufacturing jobs, says Jack Kyser, thenonprofit group's chief economist. The San Fernando Valleyrepresents the third-largest concentration of manufacturing jobs,he says.