LA City Government is Working, What Every Employer Should Be Paying Attention To, Without Immigration We Are Going Nowhere
Quote of the Week
"Every great advance has come about, and always will, because someone was frustrated by the status quo; because someone exercised the skepticism, the questioning, and the kind of curiosity which, to borrow a phrase, blows the lid off everything."
William H. Whyte, Author of The Organizational Man
The Big Picture
Finding articles and audits highlighting the disfunction of government seem to be everywhere in the last few years. But not all is lost. There is some good news coming out of the City of Los Angeles.
The Economic and Workforce Development Department (EWDD) whose mission is to support businesses and create job training and career opportunities for Angelenos and business owners has been thriving during COVID.
Throughout the past two years they have lead the allocation of $50 million in American Recovery Plan Act funding that is providing much needed relief to struggling for-profit small businesses.
One of their flagship programs is the $25 million Comeback Checks Program that provided $5,000 grants to approximately 5,000 businesses in the City. Their other programs are:
Small Business Rental Assistance: $12 million in grants of up to $15,000 to support rental/lease costs for approximately 800 small businesses.
Microenterprise Grant: $8.5 million in funds to assist microenterprises (5 employees or less, including the owners) that have been impacted by COVID. Grants of up to $15,000 have been awarded to eligible businesses, with priority to businesses that have not received assistance through any City, State or Federal program.
Equity Fund: $1 million in funds to supplement the Microenterprise Grant Program, targeted toward women-owned microenterprises. Grants of up to $15K are awarded to eligible businesses to use for operating expenses such as payroll, lease payments, insurance, inventory, etc.
Childcare Credit: Grants of up to $20,000 are assisting childcare providers that are: Microenterprises (5 or fewer employees including the owner) and Non-profit childcare centers that have been impacted by COVID.
Childcare Support: $3.3 million in assistance is going to single-parent job seekers to pay for childcare services of up to $1,000 per month for up to 6 months.
Good Food Zones: $1 million in grants of up to $25,000 to qualified businesses to expand access to healthy foods in communities that historically lack access to nutritious, fresh foods, and to promote new business models and innovation needed to offer healthier foods.
Jobs and Economic Development Incentive (JEDI) Zones: $4 million in funding to provide incentives, services and resources to businesses located within designated JEDI Zones (generally underinvested areas of the City) to assist businesses in their economic recovery post pandemic. Specifically to:
$1.5M for facade improvement projects
$1.5M for permits, up to $10K per business
$1M for upgrading business technology needs
Legacy Business Recovery Program: $5 million in funding to provide technical assistance and grants of up to $25,000 to support and preserve qualified legacy businesses that have been impacted by the pandemic. Targeted outreach ensures equitable access of this funding opportunity for legacy business owners with language or technology barriers.
Additionally, they have greatly leveraged the normally sleepy Los Angeles Development Fund, to invest $75 million in funds linked to New Market Tax Credit program in the past two years to fund the below economic development investments that are improving the quality of life for Angelenos:
CII Watts: Integrated services for 2,000 at-risk children, youth and families
Vallarta: Grocery Store in USDA Food Desert
URM: 86 transitional housing units with capacity for 370 LIPs
HOLA: Provide underserved youth with free programs in academics, arts and athletics
DADA: Provide 1,767 primarily low-income students with core dance programs
SEED LA: Charter school serving 400 high school students, primarily students who are homeless or housing insecure, foster youth, or have an immediately family member who is incarcerated
HACCC: Career and social services for 500 individuals (75% LIPs / 40% Minority) and art exhibition and performance space for local arts nonprofits
The LA Coalition has focused its attention on LADF for a number of years because it is one of the City's key assets that has the potential to better leverage the city's real estate portfolio and we will continue to advocate our top idea for its better use.
Every Employer Should be Paying Attention To These Numbers
EMSI & Burning Glass have a new report out The Demographic Drought: Bridging the Gap of Our Labor Force.
Takeaways:
Our working-age population is increasing, but the labor force participation rate is down.
The US is witnessing a record number of job openings (11 million).
Recovering our workforce is not about the employed vs. unemployed; it’s about the unengaged.
Declining birth rates have led to a greater reliance on the foreign born workforce.
Immigration numbers are down for a variety of complex reasons.
Addressing the labor shortage involves understanding the role of immigration and strategies that will engage people on the sidelines.
Workers can come from only two sources: the population we already have or the population we can gain through immigration.
Chart: The US should see slightly more people aged 55+ leaving the labor force than they see people aged 16-24 entering the labor force. That gap is predicted to continue growing every year as people graduate from one age group to the next.
Workers are Choosing to Work for Themselves
EMSI & Burning Glass report continued...
Some people may have started their own businesses and won’t ever be returning to their old employer.
New business starts surged during the pandemic, and it’s not just sole proprietorships.
Self-employment rose to a ten-year high last year. New business applications from firms likely to hire employees surged as well, from 987,500 in 2019 to 1.4 million in 2021.
Takeaway: This may be a bit painful for legacy employers who are holding out hope their workforce will return in full. But with workers remaining on the sidelines, communities will need to adjust their expectations. It will be more important that workers come back than where they come back to.
Immigrants are an Increasing Share of the Civilian Labor Force
EMSI & Burning Glass report continued...
The math is fairly simple. Population growth can come from only two places: inside the country or outside the country.
Data:
Since the 2008 recession the US birth rate has fallen by roughly 30% to a new all-time low, which means that slowing or preventing population decline will require an even greater influx of immigrants than in the past.
US births fell below the replacement rate starting in the early 1970s. This means that for 50 years, the US has had fewer children than the number that would replace its existing population.
The obvious result is population decline over time— and yet, the US population has not stopped growing. How is that possible? Although the total population grew from 301.6 million to 330.5 million during that same time period, the under-20 segment of the population fell by 1.6 million people—dropping from 27% of the total population in 2007 to just 25% in 2020.
This younger group represents the future of the labor force, and it’s shrinking. Over the next 10 to 20 years, this population shortfall will present an even more significant challenge to enrollment and recruitment efforts unless those numbers are offset from elsewhere.
Chart: With the share of young people already in short supply within the borders, foreign-born workers have filled an increasing share of the U.S. labor force since 1980.
Big Challenge: 58% of Americans are dissatisfied with the level of immigration into the U.S. and the number of Americans dissatisfied with immigration and want less rose 84% in past two years. And the fastest resurgence of jobs in places like LA are in the hospitality industry which is dominated by low-wage immigrant workers.
Why Working From Home Will Stick
A research paper estimates that 20 percent of full workdays will be supplied from home after the pandemic ends, compared with just 5 percent before.
The paper provides evidence on five reasons for this large shift:
Better-than-expected Work From Home experiences
New investments in physical and human capital that enable WFH
Greatly diminished stigma associated with WFH
Lingering concerns about crowds and contagion risks
A pandemic-driven surge in technological innovations that support WFH
They also provided survey data to project three consequences of this:
Employees will enjoy large benefits from greater remote work, especially those with higher earnings
The shift to WFH will directly reduce spending in major city centers by at least 5-10 percent relative to the pre-pandemic situation
Their data on employer plans and the relative productivity of WFH imply a 5 percent productivity boost in the post-pandemic economy due to re-optimized working arrangements. Only one-fifth of this productivity gain will show up in conventional productivity measures, because they do not capture the time savings from less commuting
Leadership in the Community
Fifth Sun Pictures is a minority owned marketing and consulting company based in South Central Los Angeles that specializes in program development and implementation for national non-profits and social impact driven enterprises.
They create marketing campaigns that engage investors, inspire community members, and increase income for schools and nonprofit organizations. Through their work, they are invested in uplifting marginalized communities with storytelling; which includes empowering low-income students of color, survivors of gun violence, and women.
Since 2019, our team has completed more than 249 marketing projects for clients like Everytown for Gun Safety (national organization), College Match (city-wide organization), and Nava College Preparatory Academy (high school).
They are currently hosting a Summer Leadership Academy for low income and marginalized students to get involved in gun violence prevention work, while expanding their personal and professional development skills.
If your organization does work with professional development, they are always looking for ways to help their students.