2010 Retrospective: Employment Picture Improves
The rate of job loss among the apparel manufacturing and apparel retail sectors slowed in 2010, dropping from 2009’s double-digit losses to single-digit losses in 2010—beating economic forecasts.
California’s textile mills shed 9.6 percent of their employees, apparel manufacturers saw a 5.9 percent drop in employment (a hopeful sign after sustaining a 14.3 percent loss in 2009), and clothing and accessories retailers in the state saw their employee ranks shrink by 3.7 percent, compared with an 11.1 percent loss in 2009.
Last year the University of California, Los Angeles’ Anderson Forecast predicted double-digit unemployment in California until 2012. The state’s apparel industry beat the dire prediction, but no one is celebrating quite yet.
While some counties saw fewer job losses and some even experienced slight gains, 2011 isn’t shaping up to be a great year, according to economists.
In its fourth quarterly report of 2010, the UCLA Anderson Forecast called for “modest growth and distressingly high unemployment” across the country for most of 2011, with an acceleration of growth late next year that will gradually lower the unemployment rate. California’s job market is expected to see “slow growth,” according to a statement from the Anderson Forecast, with Los Angeles County’s overall employment picture being “slightly more optimistic as 2010’s high unemployment rates begin to gradually descend early next year.” The national, California and Los Angeles economies aren’t expected to see rapid growth or a drop in unemployment rates until 2012, the forecast concluded.—Erin Barajas
