Employment Patterns In Los Angeles

Los Angeles County, with a population of 8.8 million in 1990, has more residents than 42 states, and 30 percent of California's population. According to the United States Census Bureau, it is the largest Metropolitan Statistical Area in the nation. It is the central MSA of the second-largest urban region of the country, which includes the 13.8 million people of Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and Los Angeles Counties.

Nonfarm employment growth fell from 3 percent in 1989 to an estimated 1.5 percent this year while the unemployment rate increased from an average 4.8 percent to an estimated 5.8 percent, largely because of a decline in manufacturing employment.