Propel L.A. Launched!

In June 2017, LAEDC officially launched Propel L.A., our region’s collaborative effort to define priorities that strengthen our economy and foster more widely shared equity and prosperity. The Propel L.A. team is dedicated to the implementation of the 2016-2020 Countywide Strategic Plan for Economic Development—ensuring the goals are implemented and the successes of our efforts and our partners are reported on and highlighted. The Plan is centered around 7 Goals, developed by Many Voices, with 1 Purpose. Learn more about the 7 Goals at Propel.LA.

Helping Businesses Create Jobs in L.A. County

LAEDC directly helped 181 businesses overcome challenges through strategic, confidential consulting resulting in 8,436 jobs either retained or created in L.A. County during our fiscal year ended June 30, making a huge impact in the lives of families in our region.

0
businesses helped
0
jobs created

Providing Regional Leadership for Amazon’s HQ2 RFP

The LAEDC assembled a Regional Economic Development (RED) Team—led by our award-winning Business Assistance Team with more than 130 years of combined experience in business attraction and retention—to mobilize all of the region’s key stakeholders and partners to develop and submit a single winning L.A. Region proposal to Amazon in response to its Request for Proposals (RFP) to locate its second corporate headquarters (HQ2). The LAEDC had the full cooperation of California Governor Jerry Brown, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, City of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and his staff and the mayors and city managers of each city in the region with a site meeting or exceeding Amazon’s requirements.

LAEDC Attracting Amazon
amazon-new-los-angeles-building

Powering Key Industry Clusters

Part of the LAEDC’s non-profit mission includes supporting industries that fuel jobs of the future. This year, the LAEDC realigned its Industry Cluster Development team and further developed its industry cluster growth initiatives, particularly in the fields of Digital Media and Entertainment, Aerospace,  Life Sciences, and Advanced Transportation. Complete with new and individual marketing collateral, LAEDC is working to set stronger foundations for these job-creating clusters that contribute to L.A.’s thriving economy.

Increasing Global Connections

LAEDC subsidiary World Trade Center L.A. published its 2017 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) report to quantify the importance of global connections to jobs in L.A. County, hosted the very successful Select L.A. Investment Summit (which received the Silver Award from the International Economic Development Council) and built on their already robust website by adding a new GIS mapping feature that allows users to view an interactive map of all the FOEs in the region.

0
Million Dollars
FDI Impact Generated
0
FDI and Trade Consultations
0
Trade Missions
Forecast
View Larger
PIJ1
View Larger
T&L5
View Larger

Research to Inform Decisions

Throughout the year, LAEDC’s Institute for Applied Economics published a variety of economic reports to assess industry cluster and sector-based research, and provided actionable forecasts of occupation and skills needs to better inform workforce development and assist policy initiatives in the context of economic impacts. LAEDC also published an economic update, which describes our current economic trajectory.  And that just scratches the surface of LAEDC’s research during 2017.

Preparing the Talent Pipeline

The Center for a Competitive Workforce, which was launched as a partnership of the LA|OC Regional Consortium of 19 community colleges, LAEDC, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Southern California Leadership Council, and the Center of Excellence for Labor Market Research at Mt San Antonio College, released a new report suggesting the need for more “middle-skill” talent to fill occupations in Los Angeles and Orange County industries. The Center—which is housed at the LAEDC in order to ensure collaboration on regional economic intelligence—released the report at the LAEDC’s “Future Forum: Future of Work in LA County” event. The partnership behind the Center connects the largest talent supply system (Community Colleges) and three of the region’s  prominent economic development and business associations (demand).

Targeted Programs to Advance Opportunity & Prosperity

As the information age, artificial intelligence and automation continue to usher in unprecedented economic, industrial and labor market transformations, the LAEDC and its regional partners are working in collaboration to anticipate and respond to these dramatic changes. In partnership with the Los Angeles Workforce Development Board, the LAEDC introduced the Business Outlook Labor Demand (BOLD) Program to address these “lifeblood” labor supply challenges, and in so doing, to advance opportunity and prosperity for all.

Public Policy Action

Sacramento sometimes needs assistance framing legislation and improving incentives, and LAEDC is there with smart public policy advocacy that advances shared opportunity and prosperity. In 2017, LAEDC took a leadership position to ensure California’s non-profits could continue to fulfill their missions, supported a Senate Bill to address the shortage of STEM teachers, and backed another Bill that aligned higher education pathways with regional industry demands.

Catalyzing Innovation: InnovateLA 2017

LAEDC continues to showcase and foster growth of the innovation ecosystem. With 110 events and over 500 hours of total programming, InnovateLA 2017 positively impacted tens of thousands of like-minded, civically engaged innovators across L.A. County. View the event recap here. Learn more about InnovateLA 2018 Sponsorship.

0
InLA2017 Events
0
InLA2017 Attendees

Recognizing Leadership in Economic Development

This year’s Eddy Awards drew attention to the extraordinary positive impacts on our regional economy made by Cedars Sinai, Cal State LA, and Mark Suster, Managing Partner of Upfront Ventures, and recognized the Cities of Arcadia and Downey as the Most Business Friendly Cities in L.A. County.

LAEDC Events Highlighted Important Economic Issues

LAEDC’s 2017 slate of events offered members and the public deep dives on pertinent issues shaping business, government, academia and the economy. LAEDC’s Future Forums—which allowed attendees to learn about the trends ahead, the workforce demands that will be required and, most importantly, the opportunities that will be available tomorrow—focused on AI & Robotics, the Convergence of Entertainment and Technology, and the Future of Work. Our 2017 Economic Forecast examined LA County’s Latino community in addition to our regional, national, and international forecast. And our Regional Economic Development (RED) Talks featured prominent entrepreneurs in intimate fireside chats with our Director of Innovation, Chris Rico.

All made Possible by…

Our LAEDC Members, who support LAEDC’s vision of higher standards of living for all L.A. County residents! Interested in supporting our mission? Learn how you can support LAEDC here.

Become A Member
Make a Tax Deductible Donation