LA: Healthcare Tech, LA Tech StartUps, College Grads, Home Prices, Aging Homeless
Quote of the Week
"Kweilin Ellingrud, a director at McKinsey Global Institute fears that when workplaces reopen without restrictions, a self-selected group will return and enjoy increased visibility and networking. That group, largely men without caregiving responsibilities, could dominate promotions and relationship-building. That could put less-visible people with care responsibilities at a disadvantage."
Harriet Torry|WSJ| March 13, 2022
Dear Readers:
I have been researching and writing on Los Angeles and California for the past decade and my library of data has grown, especially in the past two years since the onset of COVID. My goal has always been to cut through the massive amounts of information that exists and putting into a succinct format that allows the reader to discover what is interesting and hopefully useful in their profession, whether it is in the private or public sector. To support my work I would be greatly appreciative if you could help me expand my paid and unpaid subscriber base. And to those who have - thank you. Moving forward I will be uploading all of my past work and making it available to paid subscribers and I will also opening up the comment section too to help start a dialogue on these important subjects. Again, thank you for reading and supporting. Sincerely, Michael Kelly
The Big Picture
Health Tech Is One Great Opportunity to Drive LA's Economy Forward
According to a new study released from Moove It the Los Angeles metro region is a major center for health tech companies in the world. LA ranked #4 among 85 global cities with the most developed health tech ecosystems, behind Boston, New York and San Francisco but ahead of Minneapolis.
The research ranked the 85 cities across a wide range of ecosystem characteristics - see chart below - and each global city was given an overall single index score. LA's index score was 76.84.
L.A. did not achieve any top spots, but did place in the top five in nine of the 18 component rankings, capturing second-place spots for dental care products/services and prosthetics and a third place posting for nutrition.
The two categories that LA could vastly improve upon are Human Capital and the number of Healthtech Startups in the region.
It seems that LA is catching up on the latter point, with another report showing that LA is now home to 300 healthcare start ups. But with healthcare's overall 37% growth rate throughout the past decade companies will continue to need more and more middle-skilled workers who have earned an Associate’s degree, a postsecondary nondegree, or some college.
The big question is why are so many organizations in LA still struggling to connect both education and career to fill this growing pipeline.
There is no doubt that standout organizations do exist, but too few programs are linking soft and hard skills, prioritizing evidence, working with employers, or providing wraparound supports to develop the workforce LA's growth industries are demanding.
All the candidates who are looking to represent Angelenos should put forth their plans for workforce development, because that is one significant opportunity to move LA forward.
LA as a Tech Hub
A new report from the Brookings Institution and U.S. Census shows that the rise of remote work has provided an opportunity for new cities to lure tech talent from coastal hubs and they have flocked to a handful of new hubs, many of them in the Sun Belt, during the pandemic.
Key industries: Software publishing and other information services have led the way.
Trend:
The tech sector has until recently been concentrating, not decentralizing.
Employment growth slowed in some of the biggest tech “superstars” and increased in other midsized and smaller markets, including smaller quality-of-life meccas and college towns.
42% of its firms’ founders said that if they were starting a business today, their preferred “place” to launch it would be through remote or distributed work.
The share of early stage venture capital dollars going to non-Bay Area startups was on pace to exceed 70% in 2021—up from 60% in 2014.
Major tech companies such as Palantir, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Oracle, and Tesla have moved their headquarters from California to Denver, Houston, or Austin, Texas. During the pandemic, Google and Apple announced major satellite and engineering offices in North Carolina. And Intel recently announced the siting of two semiconductor plants in the Columbus, Ohio metro area, prompting excitement about the rise of a “Silicon Heartland.”
Data:
Superstar metro areas’ share of unique tech sector job postings—which had begun to decline in the pre-pandemic period—has slipped further in the last two years as postings declined from roughly 40% in September 2016 to about 31% in December 2021.
Three of the nation’s superstars—Los Angeles, Seattle, and Austin—saw their national job postings shares surge as tech job ads there increased by more than 150% during the period.
LA Metro employment as of 2019 in tech jobs is 141,000 which is a 5.6% increase from 2015-2019. in 2020. In Los Angeles, growth slowed from 5.6% to 0.2%.
There was a slight increase of .2% change of LA Metro's areas' share of the national tech jobs during that time. San Francisco, Seattle, San Jose remained the leaders. Los Angeles gave up sector share amid the year’s market gyrations.
Oxnard, Thousand Oaks, Ventura, which experienced +2.2% growth in tech workers per capita from 2019-2020.
Where Are College Grads Heading
A report from the new Axios-Generation Lab Next Cities Index shows that the red-blue divide even sways where students want to live after college.
Austin was the top choice for young Republicans who want to leave their home states after graduation.
New York topped the list for young Dems.
Seattle won big with independents.
Between the lines: Austin wasn't in the top 15 cities for Democratic students. New York wasn't in the top 15 cities for Republicans.
Democrats (54%) were more likely to want to leave their home states than Republicans (41%).
Seattle is the overall most desired post-grad destination for college students, according to the survey, conducted by Generation Lab. Seattle eclipsed several classically popular young-adult destinations, which fill out the top 5: NYC ... L.A. ... Denver ... Boston.
$1 Million Homes Are Everywhere
Nationwide, a record 8.2% of U.S. homes (6 million) were valued at $1 million or more in February. That’s up from 4.8% (3.5 million) two years earlier, just before the coronavirus was declared a pandemic. Redfin report.
Data:
The amount of million dollar homes has nearly double the pre-pandemic share.
The biggest jump was in Anaheim, where 55% of homes were worth $1 million or more in February, up from 27% two years earlier.
The Bay Area led the way, with nearly nine out of 10 properties in both San Francisco and San Jose falling into the $1 million-plus category.
38.5 of homes in LA are now million dollar homes.
Takeaway: As expensive homes take up a larger chunk of the housing market, many Americans are getting priced out.
Older Angelenos Falling into Homelessness
A new report The Older Adult Strategy: A Roadmap of Strategic System Investments to End Homelessness Among Older Adults in LA was released by the United Ways' Home for Good. Some findings:
Older adults experiencing homelessness are one of the fastest growing populations experiencing homelessness increasing by 68.5% in the United States between 2007-2017
Older adults account for 25% of LA County’s homeless population and will be the fastest growing age demographic through 2030.
Black and African American people are more over-represented among older adults experiencing homelessness (39%) than they are in the general homeless population (33%) despite accounting for only 8% of the total population in L.A. County.
Many older adults in CA experiencing homelessness for the first time are the 50+ and the latest research in CA shows a large portion of older adults experiencing homelessness are experiencing it for the first time after age 50, and many are related to post-incarceration housing instability.
Recommendations for action:
Create more affordable and accessible housing
Implement the Older Adults Pilot with a Housing Allowance for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients.
Insist the unprecedented ARP resources for eviction relief, property acquisition, and Emergency Rental Vouchers benefit the COVID-vulnerable older adults they were designed to support and protect.
Ensure Medi-Cal helps its older adults maintain their housing stability through smart CalAIM reforms, In Lieu of Services (ILOS) Provisions, Waiver Programs, and the Home and Community Based Services Spending Plan.
Modernize SSI to cover the housing cost for vulnerable older adults, because SSI income levels have not kept pace with housing inflation in urban markets like L.A. since 2008.
Deliver on criminal justice reform for Black older adults transitioning out of incarceration by implementing the Measure J spending plan that focuses on housing, intensive case management, and reintegration to better support Black older adults.
Leadership in the Community
Erika D. Beck (LA Coalition member) was officially sworn in as California State University's sixth president on March 14, 2022. She is the fourth consecutive female president of CSUN.
A native Californian, Beck holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California, San Diego, a master’s degree in psychology from San Diego State University and a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the U.C., San Diego, where she also served as a faculty fellow. A former research associate at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, she has conducted research in the areas of developmental and cognitive neuroscience.
When Beck took the jobs she said she was attracted to CSUN because of the university’s reputation “as one of the most significant facilitators of social mobility in our country...CSUN has a well-deserved reputation for equitable and inclusive education, facilitated by the exceptional faculty who lead robust academic and research programs in service of nearly 40,000 students and 370,000 alumni...So, it strikes me that this incredible institution — nestled in a region that serves as a magnet for innovation across a wide array of disciplines — is ideally suited to lead the future of public higher education as we continue to drive the future of Southern Californian by expanding opportunity across an inequitable landscape.”