Creative Economy Set for Growth in Los Angeles
Now its third year, Otis College of Art and Design’s report on the L.A. creative economy finds that the industry, excluding manufacturing segments, is projected to grow by an estimated 4,000 jobs, or 1.6 percent, by 2013.
The report, using 2008 statistics, was commissioned by Otis and prepared by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
The data was presented Nov. 10 at the Omni Los Angeles Hotel by Nancy D. Sidhu, vice president and chief economist of the Kyser Center for Economic Research at the LAEDC. (At the same event, Mattel presented Otis with a gift of $1.85 million.)
According to the report, the creative economy (which includes fashion, entertainment, architecture, interior design, toys, performing art and digital media) accounts for nearly 1 million jobs and is one of the largest business sectors in the region.
Despite the down economy, the report estimates the creative economy actually grew in 2008. Statistics show that L.A.’s creative economy was valued at nearly $100 billion in 2007. The new report estimates the county’s creative economy reached $121 billion in 2008.
Fashion—which includes apparel and textile manufacturers, wholesale apparel and jewelry marts, and cosmetics, footwear and handbag producers—was again among the big players in the report.
In 2008, the Los Angeles County fashion industry accounted for 30.5 percent of the creative economy’s total $121 billion in revenues. During that same year, 6,872 fashion businesses in Los Angeles County employed 98,000 direct employees and raked in $36.3 billion in direct sales. Wholesale apparel sales accounted for $16.4 billion of that figure; apparel manufacturing accounted for $5.8 billion.
Not all the news was positive. Sidhu said the fashion industry would continue to see its employment figures shrink as more manufacturing jobs are pushed offshore. The exodus could mean that Los Angeles County’s manufacturing sectors would decrease by 11,800 jobs in 2013. That decline, a loss of approximately 11.7 percent of industry jobs over the next five years, will drag the Los Angeles County creative economy’s employment figures down by 2.3 percent from 2008 levels.
The full 2009 “Report on the Creative Economy of the Los Angeles Region” is available online at www.otis.edu/cecon09. —Erin Barajas
