Sept. 11 Fallout: OC Could See Loss of 27,000 Jobs
By RAJIV VYAS
Orange County, with its reliance on tourism, could end up losing some 27,000 jobs as a result of Sept. 11, according to a recent study by The Milken Institute, a Santa Monica think tank.
The job losses would be 1.83% of OC’s non-farm employment, according to the study. Most of the losses are expected to play out this year.
In 2001, OC lost less than 5,000 jobs because of the attacks, the study said. By the end of next year, about half the jobs lost in 2002 could be recovered, the study predicted.
The institute looked at 315 U.S. metropolitan areas to see how they would be impacted by the terrorist attacks.
Estimated OC job losses are based on the county’s high number of industries vulnerable to the fallout of the terrorist attacks: hotels, amusement parks, restaurants and travel services. OC ranks second only in this mix to Orlando, Fla., which is expected to see a jobs loss equal to 2.85% of its non-farm total, according to the institute.
(Las Vegas, with more hotels but no theme parks, is predicted to see a jobs loss equal to 5% of its non-farm total).
In Southern California, OC could be the most impacted, the study found. Los Angeles County could lose 69,000 jobs, or 1.65% of the total non-farm employment, the institute said. San Diego could lose 1.53% of its non-farm jobs total.
Milken predicts that the three major economic regions in Southern California are expected to lose a combined 115,000 jobs. The 315 U.S. areas in the entire study could lose as many as 1.6 million jobs, the report said.
The research findings take into account the ripple effect from directly affected industries to other sectors. Job losses would be spread across a wide range of industries, from tourism to financial services, the report said.
