LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles job growth is outpacing the state and the country, and that job growth is fueling local economic activity that with keep the real estate market strong through 2017. According to a Beacon Economics Los Angeles Outlook report, nonfarm payroll employment in Los Angeles County grew 1.6% between October 2015 and October 2016. While that number hovers below surrounding markets (Orange County job growth is at 2.5% and San Francisco is at 2.4%), Los Angeles wins in terms of absolute job numbers, adding 70,100 positions year-over-year. To find out more about Los Angeles job growth and expectations in 2017, we sat down with Robert A. Kleinhenz, economist and senior research director at Beacon Economics for an exclusive interview.

GlobeSt.com: Tell me about the job growth in Los Angeles and how it is set to fuel the local economy in 2017.

Robert A. Kleinhenz: A lot of the leading industries in Los Angeles are continuing to do well and add jobs, and economic activity is up. A lot of those industries are serving the local community, like health services, which had grown and will continue to grow. That is a little bit of a wild card because of changes to the Affordable Care Act, but I suspect that any changes to that are going to come out more slowly. Health care should be strong; construction and more generally the housing market should show more improvement than it has, especially before interest rates and housing goes higher; tourism continues to see strong numbers and job counts are on the rise. All of that is supporting the local economy picture in 2017.

GlobeSt.com: What about the tech market? We hear so much about the tech market being a major driver in Los Angeles.

Kleinhenz: We have a lot of Silicon Valley companies that have put down roots in the South Bay Silicon Beach market. The job counts, however, are a little hard to single out the numbers because you have a variety of tech-related activity that gets buried in the industry codes.

GlobeSt.com: How does Los Angeles compare to the state and other major metros in California?

Kleinhenz: The County has had job gains at a little under 2% in recent months and at the beginning of the year, job gains were a little over 2%, so we started out stronger than we are finishing. That pattern has been true of the State of California and the US. The Silicon Valley and San Francisco are both seeing job growth at a faster rate; however, if you look at jobs in absolute terms, Los Angeles is adding jobs at a bout double Santa Clara County and San Francisco. They have had the benefit of the IT industry, both the service and manufacturing side of things. That market is practically recession proof if you look at the Bay area.

GlobeSt.com: Is it significant that Los Angeles' job growth outpaces the state and the country?

Kleinhenz: Historically, Los Angeles performs a little bit late. Our unemployment rates tend to rise a little bit later, and we also tend to lag when it comes to emerging from a recession. That was indeed the case in this go-around, and so it was kind of refreshing to get into 2016 and find that our unemployment rate had fallen into the 5% range, and at several points in time this year, it was better than the state as a whole. It is good to report that the county has been adding jobs at this rate.

GlobeSt.com: Tell me about the job growth in Los Angeles and how it is set to fuel the local economy in 2017.

GlobeSt.com: What about the tech market? We hear so much about the tech market being a major driver in Los Angeles.

GlobeSt.com: How does Los Angeles compare to the state and other major metros in California?

GlobeSt.com: Is it significant that Los Angeles' job growth outpaces the state and the country?

Instant Insights /

Strong Job Growth Sets L.A. Up for a Good 2017

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