City, County Asked to Create Jobs for Unemployed Workers

Local government should step in to fund development and create jobs for workers who lost jobs after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, labor advocates and others told a mayoral task force Friday.

The city and county of Los Angeles, along with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, can provide much-needed jobs by accelerating public works projects, speakers told the Los Angeles Economic Task Force at City Hall.

The programs could be comparable to the Work Projects Administration, the federal agency formed to provide work in Depression-era America, said UCLA professor Goetz Wolff, research director for the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

Julie Butcher, general manager of the Service Employees International Union Local 347, which represents city employees, separately suggested a similar program that would channel more welfare recipients into a city jobs program repairing streets.

The task force, appointed by Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn and chaired by attorney George Kieffer, held its first meeting Friday. It is expected to produce a report with recommendations in about two weeks.

The attacks, which came at a time when the economy was already souring, are hammering many industries, with more than 35,000 jobs in L.A. County lost to date, Jack Kyser, chief economist of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., told the task force.

He predicted that county unemployment will grow to 6.4% by early 2002 before a possible rebound takes root in the second quarter.

Labor leaders too are compiling comprehensive data on the tens of thousands of jobs already lost in the hotel, airline, parking and other related industries, Wolff said.

Of particular concern, several speakers told the task force, are the county’s poorest residents, who are facing job dislocation and eviction as a result of recent layoffs. Among them are welfare recipients just going off the public rolls.

Although welfare reform has been lauded by bipartisan analysts as successful because of the recent boom economy, federal funding for the program is set to run out in the coming months.

“There’s a policy consideration there. Should we extend access to welfare?” Wolff asked.