As more tech companies like Meta and YouTube capitalize on the short vertical video format popularized by TikTok and Santa Monica-based Snap Inc., marketing firms are looking to create brand impact in a sea of black box algorithms and bite-sized content.
Moments Media, a Calabasas-based consulting agency for mobile video, launched earlier this month to take on mobile video. The company is led by Askia Underwood, a longtime digital marketing consultant in Los Angeles, and has acquired a roster of clients like Airbnb Inc., the Microsoft Corp., the National Basketball Association and the National Football League.
“In the age of the infinite scroll, mobile video isn’t just content: it’s currency,” Underwood, the founder of Moments Media, said in a statement. “As attention architects, we help brands mint moments that stop thumbs, capture hearts, and convert attention into revenue.”
Moments Media relies heavily on data to inform strategy. If it’s the brains, the heart is its partner, SAVG Studio. SAVG Studio, a creative production studio that has partnered with companies like Samsung, Adobe and Panasonic, uses a suite of tools to create visual content.
“In a multi-screen world, brand content needs to be adaptable,” Luke Neumann, the chief executive of SAVG Studio, said in a statement. “Building mobile-first video experiences that are interoperable across platforms, prioritizes a consistent and engaging viewer experience.”
Global advertising spend dedicated to mobile is expected to reach $402 billion in 2024, according to Data.ai, and consumers spent $171 billion last year via their phones, primarily driven by social media companies and the creator space.
L.A. in particular has become a hub for mobile spending – there are around 20 social commerce companies in L.A., more than any other city in the U.S., per Pitchbook. Via social commerce, brands can take advantage of snap-second judgments made by viewers on social media and turn them into dollars by allowing viewers to purchase products directly on the platform instead of routing them to a website.
L.A. County’s unemployment rate rose again to 5.6% in August from 5.5% in July, its highest level in nearly two-and-a-half years. The uptick came despite modest growth of nearly 14,000 payroll jobs for the month.
Those are the key takeaways from the monthly unemployment and payroll jobs data release on Sept. 20 from the state Employment Development Department for Los Angeles County.
The rise in the unemployment rate was due in part to more people entering the labor force looking for work in August, which led to an increase of 19,000 in the size of the labor force compared to July.
In August of last year, the unemployment rate stood at 5.1%.
The county’s unemployment rate was above the statewide average for August of 5.3% and well above the national average of 4.2%.
The Employment Development Department also released a breakout of August unemployment rates by city, though unlike the countywide average, these are not adjusted for seasonal factors. The rates for the two largest cities in the county – Los Angeles and Long Beach – were identical at 6.8%.
Among cities with labor forces exceeding 10,000, Lomita had the lowest seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate of 2.8% in August, while Calabasas had the highest rate at 9.5% – nearly one out of every 10 residents in the labor force.
Among cities in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita, Antelope and Conejo valleys with labor forces exceeding 10,000, the city of San Fernando had the lowest seasonally-unadjusted unemployment rate in August of 5.1%, followed by Santa Clarita (6.2%) and then Glendale (6.5%).
At the high end in the quad-valley area, after Calabasas and its 9.5% unemployment rate in August, next were Palmdale (9.0%) and Lancaster (8.9%). Burbank’s rate came in at 8.1%.
Turning to employer payrolls, August’s increase of 13,700 jobs represented a modest rebound from the steep drop of 31,000 jobs in July and brough the total payroll job tally in the county to 4,572,900.
The biggest increase came in K-12 public education, which added 23,000 jobs; several local school districts – including Los Angeles Unified – began their new academic year in August.
To account for this expected seasonal increase, the state also released a seasonally adjusted payroll jobs figure for August that showed a slight drop of 1,000 jobs compared to July.
Returning to the unadjusted figures, the only other industry registering a significant increase in payroll jobs in August was health care/social assistance, up 6,800 jobs.
On the downside, the motion picture/sound recording industry posted the largest drop of 4,300 payroll jobs in August as that industry is continuing to contract from its peak television era of a few years back. Professional/business services was the only other industry to post a significant drop of 1,400 jobs.
For the 12 months ending in August, employers in the county added on net 78,000 jobs for a year-over-year increase of 1.7%. Nearly half of that gain came from the health care/social assistance sector, which added 37,700 jobs over that 12-month stretch. Other gainers included local government K-12 education (up 17,500 jobs) and accommodation/food services (up 11,600 jobs).
The professional/business services sector saw the largest drop for the 12 months ending in August, shedding on net 8,700 jobs. Most of those came in the administrative/support services subsector, which posted a drop of 6,500 jobs.
Not far behind was the manufacturing sector, which on net shed about 4,000 jobs during the 12 months ending in August. The total of 314,000 employed in manufacturing in August was down by exactly 500,000 jobs from the total recorded in August 1990, representing a drop of more than 60%.
Water Garden office complex in Santa Monica. (Photo by David Sprague)
Santa Monica is the most expensive city to do business in, not only in Los Angeles County but throughout several Western states, according to a survey released this summer examining the cost of doing business in more than 200 cities.
The survey was co-authored by El Segundo economic development consulting firm Kosmont Cos. and the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College. It compares local taxes, fees, business property rents and other costs that businesses face in 216 cities, primarily in Southern California but also in nine Western states plus Minnesota and Texas.
For the first time in the 30-year history of the survey, every city in Los Angeles County was examined.
As in past surveys, cities in Los Angeles County dominated the highest-cost tier among the cities in the survey, with Culver City, Pasadena, Los Angeles and Burbank also placing in the top 10. Just one – Santa Clarita – was found to be in the lowest-cost tier.
“For this first look at every city in Los Angeles County, the major surprise was how uniform it was that L.A. County cities were more expensive than other counties,” said Ken Miller, director of the Rose Institute and a co-author of the survey.
How the rankings work
Cities were ranked with scores between 1 (lowest cost) and 5 (highest cost) for each of seven categories, including business license taxes, minimum wage requirements, utility taxes, sales taxes, average commercial rents and a housing affordability index figure. A crime index figure, though not a direct dollar cost, was also included, on the assumption that a higher crime index translates into more burglaries and other crimes against businesses that impose recovery costs. Then the index scores were averaged out to yield a composite index score.
Based on this, Santa Monica was the only city to achieve the dubious distinction of the highest cost score of 5 in each of the seven categories. Although Santa Monica had topped the costliest cities list in previous surveys, it was not included in the last survey released in December 2022. That survey had been scaled back due to a lack of resources at the Rose Institute.
“Leaving a city like Santa Monica off the list that we knew to be expensive was the main reason why we decided to be more thorough in Southern California this time around and capture every city,” Miller said.
Culver City, which topped that December 2022 survey, slipped to No. 2 this time, with a score of 4.87.
Los Angeles, which had also topped several surveys in past years, fell to the No. 5 spot (tied at 4.57 with two other cities in the county).
Larry Kosmont, chief executive of his namesake economic development firm and the originator of the Cost of Doing Business Survey, said a major factor for Los Angeles falling in the ranking was reductions in some business tax categories.
Larry Kosmont
“Don’t get me wrong: Los Angeles still has some of the most expensive business taxes around,” Kosmont said. “But in some categories, there has been significant progress, and that was just enough to push that ranking down to a 4 instead of a 5,” he said.
Kosmont also noted that the 9.5% sales tax in Los Angeles was lower than in several other cities in the county where the sales tax is maxed out at 10.25%.
Only one Los Angeles County city – Santa Clarita – was in the lowest cost tier, while only four of the county’s 88 cities – Palmdale, La Habra Heights, City of Industry and La Mirada – placed in the second-to-lowest tier.
Miller and Kosmont noted that cities in neighboring Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties generally ranked in the middle of the cost index, with a significant portion of the cities placing in the lower cost tiers.
“This may have something to do with the voters in those cities being more resistant to tax increases than in Los Angeles County,” Miller said.
Lower business costs out of state
The survey also made a concerted attempt to compare the same business costs in 40 cities in several Western states, plus Minnesota and Texas.
“We tried to look at cities where a lot of California businesses have fled to in recent years, to get a sense of just how much cheaper they are,” Miller said.
Given that history, the findings were predictable: cities in other states that have become home to relocated California companies have much lower costs, especially in Nevada, Arizona and Texas.
Dallas and Houston in Texas both came in with scores of 1.86, well within the lowest cost tier. Several large Los Angeles County corporations in the last decade have relocated to these cities, including Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Houston), infrastructure services giant AECOM (Dallas); and Jacobs Engineering Group (Dallas).
More recently, Elon Musk announced in July he is moving his Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) from Hawthorne to the company’s rocket launch site near Brownsville, Texas. And last week, electric fleet vehicle manufacturer Canoo Inc. announced it was moving its headquarters from Torrance to Justin, Texas, near Dallas. (Learn more about Canoo’s move on page 3.)
Closer to California, Carson City and Henderson in Nevada came in even lower, with scores of 1.57 and 1.67 respectively.
But the lowest cost score of any city in the survey was Boise, Idaho, at 1.43.
Agreement: SAG-AFTRA’s Duncan Crabtree-Ireland at his Mid-Wilshire office. (Photo by David Sprague)
For as long as Duncan Crabtree-Ireland has been brokering deals and negotiations for the 160,000 members of SAG-AFTRA, he has attended the Consumer Electronics Show. In his words, he has always been fascinated with technology.Â
“Almost everybody says that now,”he said. “But if you were to go back and search the world of archives, there was a profile of me, I think, done back in 2006 when I was appointed to general counsel (of SAG-AFTRA) that described me as a technophile.”
His interest in technology has now been put to work when, earlier this month, he led the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to announce the makers of 80 video games agreed to its terms around the use of artificial intelligence.
SAG-AFTRA has been in negotiations with video game companies since 2022 over one provision: AI, and how to determine consent and compensation for digital replications of human performances. The strike prohibits union members voice acting or performing motion capture services for certain companies.Â
The strike not only impacts video game companies on production releases slated for 2025 and 2026, but it is also impacting the growing number of generative AI companies that are popping up in the media sphere. According to Pitchbook, funding in the sector peaked in 2024 with $742 million – and the year isn’t over yet.
“Startup ventures have always been responsible to act ethically and following regulations, whatever they may be,” said Sherry Shugerman Gunther, an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Southern California. “Sometimes people don’t know the rules when they begin a new venture…but the stakes are higher because of AI.”
Treading cautiouslyÂ
Startups are learning from the mistakes of big technology companies from the past. Uber and the subsequent rise of gig work turned into a decades-long-and-counting battle between gig work companies, workers themselves and legislation defining the protections of this new class of workers.
When Alex Serdiuk started Respeecher, a Burbank and Ukraine-based AI voice startup, he carefully followed legislation and union actions around AI amid a swirl of deepfakes made with similar technologies to his.
“Investors could be divided into two big buckets,” Serdiuk said. “Those who get big scale numbers in terms of adopting technology without paying any attention to ethics, and those who follow the rules of the top of the industry, like Hollywood.”
Respeecher has worked on more than 170 projects since its inception in 2018, and has a roster of actor voices like Chris Farley and Orson Welles. With Respeecher, productions don’t have to spend time and money bringing actors back to the recording studio, and they can use the same voice in multiple languages instead of using multiple actors. The company has raised $3.25 million.
“(Some companies) are removing all the constraints of utilizing the technology and just living with the fact that their tech is being misused by a global audience for some awful cases,” he said. “So our approach has been pushing for trust. That’s not just a meaningful thing for us to do, but it’s also a business decision to see the outcome from the trust itself.”
The technology union
This isn’t the first technology shakeup SAG-AFTRA has seen. The Screen Actors Guild once had to learn how to navigate television shows when the serialized format became widely adopted. Then came VCRs, which could record television shows and create copyright concerns for actors, and streaming services.
“You can’t block the technology. Past history shows that labor unions that have tried to do that inevitably fail,” Crabtree-Ireland said. “Instead of wasting your political and bargaining capital trying to block technology, you can use that capital to channel it in a direction that’s more beneficial.”
Union: SAG-AFTRA is based in Mid-Wilshire. (Photo by David Sprague)
There are certainly some benefits to digital replication performances enabled by generative AI. It can help avoid scheduling conflicts when two actors need to work together. It can help entertainers reshoot scenes at a reasonable cost. It can give actors with disabilities a chance to be considered for roles they may not have otherwise had a chance to audition for.Â
For Nikola Todorovic, a filmmaker and visual effects artist, AI was an opportunity to produce a lavish indie science fiction animation movie without an unrealistic million-dollar franchise budget. He co-founded Wonder Dynamics, a West Hollywood-based AI visual effects startup, with actor Tye Sheridan in 2016.
“What I’m excited about AI, long term really, is that expansion of the market and giving more opportunities to people outside of Hollywood,” he said.Â
Wonder Dynamics raised $11.5 million between 2019 and 2021 from companies like North Hollywood-based Sunset Ventures. It was acquired by Autodesk for an undisclosed amount in May.Â
Wonder Dynamics is part of a slew of startups that are coming in to address the many logistical challenges – from filming on set during bad weather, to schedule changes, to funding mishaps – that make up the world of film and entertainment. It also allows low-budget filmmakers to make movies with higher production quality.
“If we lower the barrier of entry, we’re going to have new voices, we’re going to have a really global approach,” Todorovic said. “And then we’re going to hear better stories.”
As for SAG-AFTRA, the union was still striking against video game companies it didn’t have agreements withas of press time.
“What (the studios)need to remember is the thing that distinguishes them from every AI company out there is the relationship that they have with creative talent. And if creative talent isn’t important to them, then there is nothing they can do that OpenAI or anybody else can’t do,” Crabtree-Ireland said. “Because if it’s just algorithms, then their unique competitive advantage in this business is gone.”
Health: USC Verdugo Hills Hospital is in Glendale.
USC Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale is closing its maternity ward and neonatal intensive care unit in November – the second local hospital to do so this year as hospitals grapple with lower birth rates, staffing shortages and higher costs.
The closure announcement, which came last month, affects about 70 employees that have been staffing the 18-bed unit. In a notice posted on the hospital’s website, expectant mothers are referred to other local hospitals in the Glendale-Pasadena area or USC Arcadia Hospital in the San Gabriel Valley.
A statement provided to the Business Journal from the USC Keck School of Medicine, which runs the hospital, cited changing demographic factors that prompted a reexamination of hospital services.
“This decision is based on a careful and thorough examination of the hospital’s services and the shifting demographics and needs of the community it serves,” the statement read.
The closure takes effect on Nov. 20. Hospital executives in the statement promised to assist affected hospital staff in their next steps, but gave no details on how many of the affected 70 employees would be reassigned within the USC Keck hospital network or let go.
Not the only closure
The notice from USC Verdugo Hills Hospital follows an announcement back in February that Adventist Health Simi Valley Hospital would shut down its maternity and neonatal intensive care services in May. That closure impacted about 50 employees.
Overall, nationwide, some two dozen hospitals have shuttered their maternal and neonatal intensive care services since the beginning of the year, according to a survey last month from hospital industry publication Becker’s Hospital Review.
Hospital executives at Adventist Health Simi Valley were more specific about the reasons for the closure of their maternal and neonatal services.
“Hospital births have declined by 25% at Adventist Health Simi Valley, and the hospital can no longer sustain these services,” the announcement said.
The announcement went on to note that births in Ventura County had declined to 10.5 for every 1,000 residents from 19 per 1,000 residents in 1990.
“We are looking at the changing demographics of our community and making an adjustment to meet the growing needs of a more senior population,” said Jennifer Swenson, president of Adventist Health Simi Valley Hospital, said in the announcement.
Jennifer Swenson, president of Adventist Health Simi Valley.
The demographic trends are impacting maternity services at hospitals throughout the region, according to Adam Blackstone, spokesman for the Hospital Association of Southern California.
But Blackstone cited several other reasons for the decisions to shutter maternity and neonatal services, including staffing shortages and low reimbursement rates from Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program for low-income patients.
On the staffing shortages, Blackstone gave as an example a looming shortage of obstetricians who provide pregnancy care, help deliver babies and also care for mothers and babies immediately after birth.
“Many hospitals are currently facing a shortage of obstetric staff,” Blackstone said. “By 2030, the state is projected to experience a shortage of more than 1,100 obstetricians.”
With these shortage conditions, not only are obstetricians harder to find, but when hospitals do hire them, they have to pay more for their services.
He also noted that in general, maternal and neonatal services are the second-most expensive departments at local hospitals, second only to emergency departments/trauma centers.
“They need 24/7 staffing, specialized equipment and dedicated spaces,” he said.
Some hospitals, he added, look at these expenses and also at the long-term decline in birth rates and conclude it’s not worth keeping the maternity and neonatal services departments open.
But Blackstone cited yet another factor: persistently low reimbursement rates from Medi-Cal. Roughly one-third of all residents in the county are eligible for Medi-Cal, so this hits most hospitals.
“Medi-Cal reimbursement rates are often five times lower than those of commercial plans, making this model unsustainable for many hospitals,” Blackstone said.
According to the statements from both hospitals, one other demographic trend is in play: as the region’s population ages, hospitals are putting more staffing and other resources into senior care. While neither hospital said this outright, this trend likely means that some of the nursing staff that have been in the maternal/neonatal services departments are being shifted to care for senior patients.
As more hospitals close their maternity services and neonatal intensive care departments, these services end up being consolidated at fewer hospitals. While Blackstone noted that high volumes of patients for these services at these remaining hospitals help them cover the soaring costs, the net effect is that many expectant mothers about to give birth have to travel farther.
Both USC Verdugo Hills Hospital and Adventist Health Simi Valley Hospital in their statements posted on their websites gave information on nearby hospitals offering maternal and neonatal services.
“During this transition, USC Verdugo Hills Hospital is working to ensure that patients and their families continue to receive high-quality obstetric care close to home,” that hospital’s statement said.
For USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, these alternate hospitals include Glendale Memorial, Adventist Health Glendale, Huntington Hospital in Pasadena and USC Arcadia Hospital.
For Adventist Health Hospital Simi Valley, expectant mothers needing care and delivery services are now referred to Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard and Northridge Medical Center.
Glendale Memorial Hospital, which is part of the Dignity Health umbrella.
Last month saw a leadership shuffle at Dignity Health’s Glendale Memorial and Northridge hospitals as the former chief executive of the Glendale hospital was elevated to Southern California market president in charge of six hospitals.
The leadership changes are part of a statewide restructuring being carried out by Dignity Health’s parent, Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health.
First, in April, the former chief executive of Glendale Memorial, Jill Welton, was promoted to a new position as president of the Southern California regionfor San Francisco-based Dignity Health. Welton, who is based in Glendale, is in charge of six hospitals; the Glendale and Northridge facilities as well as California Medical Center in downtown Los Angeles, St. Mary Hospital in Long Beach and two hospitals in San Bernardino – Community Hospital and St. Bernardine Medical Center.
Jill WeltonBetsy Hart
“I am deeply committed to upholding the values of compassionate care and excellence that Dignity Health is known for,” Welton said in the April announcement. “Together, with our exceptional teams, I am eager to build upon our legacy of service and innovation, ensuring that every patient receives the highest standard of care.”
Betsy Hart replaced Welton as chief executive of Glendale Memorial as of Aug. 19.
Hart most recently served as chief operating officer of Dignity Health Northridge Hospital, where she led operational responses during the Covid-19 pandemic and spearheaded construction projects, including an emergency department expansion and a new urgent care center.
“Her track record of creating effective and cohesive teams that are committed to exceeding quality health care outcomes will enable Glendale Memorial Hospital to remain a pillar in the community that patients and their families continue to rely on for exceptional medical care,” Welton said of Hart’s appointment.
Prior to joining Dignity Health, Hart served as the chief nursing officer at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank.
Meanwhile, at Northridge Hospital, Paul Watkins, chief executive since 2018, announced earlier this year that he was retiring.
Jeremy Zoch replaced Watkins as chief executive at Northridge, effective Aug. 19.
Northridge Hospital
Zoch most recently served as chief executive of Providence St. Joseph Hospital, a 463-bed facility in Orange, where he oversaw more than 3,000 caregivers and another 1,300 staff members and helped raise over $140 million during his 11-year tenure.
Before that, Zoch served as chief operating officer at Mercy Hospitals Southwest. Prior to moving to California, Zoch worked for the University of Maryland Medicine and Medical System in Baltimore, as well as the Johns Hopkins Health System.
Dignity Health’s predecessor organization, Catholic Healthcare West, bought both Glendale Memorial and Northridge Hospital as part of a larger purchase of eight hospitals from Burbank-based UniHealth. In 2012, San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare West rebranded as Dignity Health. Then, in 2019, Dignity Health merged with Catholic Health Initiative to form CommonSpirit Health, which is the second-largest nonprofit hospital chain in the United States with more than 140 hospitals.
Operations: Mission Valley Bank is headquartered in Sun Valley.
Mission Valley Bank in Sun Valley launched a new partnership last week with the Enrich Financial Literacy Program to provide its clients with access to an online financial education platform.
Through the Enrich program, Mission Valley Bank customers can access interactive workshops, detailed seminars and comprehensive online courses on topics including effective budgeting, strategic saving, intelligent investing and prudent credit management.
This three-year partnership will deliver these resources to bank clients who choose to opt in at no cost to the customer with Mission Valley’s $30,000 pledge to Enrich to be paid in increments over three years.
Paula Bahamon, vice president of community development at Mission Valley, spearheaded this initiative with a drive to improve financial literacy throughout the community. Over her tenure working both as a business banker and as a business consultant, Bahamon said she has noticed shortfalls in people’s knowledge of the financial realm across various customer types, including business owners.
Paula Bahamon
“I diagnosed based on multiple interactions the gaps and the deficiencies of business owners and that they really needed to elevate their knowledge and understanding from basic topics to more sophisticated topics,” Bahamon said.
“There is not a playing field where everybody speaks the same level of fluency in financial literacy,” she added.
Enrich’s program caters to different levels of expertise through varied course options and to diverse clientele with material dedicated to managing personal finances in addition to entrepreneurs looking to learn new strategies.
“I was very pleased to see the curriculum of Enrich was very extensive, comprehensive and nailed down the pains of what society is suffering in today’s age, and it pertains pretty much to anybody and everybody,” Bahamon said.
Bahamon used education surrounding loans as an example of the efficacy of financial literacy, noting the importance of understanding the responsibility someone is committing themselves to when entering a loan agreement.
Another aspect of Enrich Bahamon spoke highly of was its accessibility. Being an online platform allows users to navigate the material at their own pace, in their preferred space and when it’s most convenient for them.
“It became more and more evident the urgency to provide a platform where our community has access to these tools and educational resources, so they can elevate their performance,” Bahamon said.
Headquartered in Sun Valley, Mission Valley also has branches in the Santa Clarita Valley and in Burbank.
In addition to the physical expansion of the bank’s operations, Mission Valley has seen financial growth recently with its profits having doubled in the first nine months of 2023. Mission Valley Chief Executive Tamara Gurney attributed much of this increase to the bank’s accounts receivable financing in a January interview.
Bahamon emphasized Mission Valley’s standing as a community bank at a time when the nation is seeing fewer and fewer of such.
“The mission, the vision and the execution of providing financial literacy is just a reflection of our commitment to our community,” Bahamon said.
“We’re closing the gap by literally bridging from (clients’) dreams of accomplishing a successful business to actually crossing the finish line,” Bahamon added.
Rendering: A train station on a Honolulu light rail segment.
Sylmar-based civil construction contractor Tutor Perini Corp. has been awarded a $1.66 billion contract to construct a rail line segment through downtown Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
Tutor Perini was the only bidder on the project, according to local media reports. The award is from the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, or HART.
The company said the contract value will be added to its project backlog for the third quarter.The project is the final 3-mile segment of an elevated rail line through Honolulu; the segment is known as the City Center Guideway and Stations. The overall Honolulu rail project is nearly 19 miles long and consists of 19 stations. The first segment – 10 miles with nine stations – opened last year, while the second segment is currently in the final stages of construction and is expected to open next year.
Besides the 3 miles of rail line, the contract calls for the Tutor Perini-led team to construct six stations, including one at the city’s civic center.
According to the Aug. 15 announcement from Tutor Perini, while the contract award was announced that day, a final contract is not expected to be executed until next month. Project design is expected to begin immediately after that point; that work will be led by Chantilly, Virginia-based Parsons Corp., which is the design subcontractor on Tutor Perini’s team.
Construction of the elevated guideway line is expected to begin in the second half of next year, with a target completion date of 2030.
“We are proud and honored to be a part of this transformational project in Honolulu,” Tutor Perini Chief Executive Ronald Tutor said in the announcement. “Tutor Perini has a long and successful history of building large, complex light rail projects in various cities in the United States, and we look forward to partnering with HART to see this project successfully delivered.”
This project announcement comes just weeks after a team led by Tutor Perini was named “best value proposer” for the 1.6-mile, $2 billion automated people mover rail project linking downtown Inglewood with the sports and entertainment venues surrounding SoFi Stadium. That contract is expected to be awarded later this year.
Summertime layoffs at local schools hit hard in July, helping to push Los Angeles County’s unemployment rate up to 5.5% from 5.3% in June and knocking more than 30,000 jobs off of employer payrolls in the county.
Those are the key takeaways from the state Employment Development Department’s monthly release on Aug. 16 of unemployment and payroll data for L.A. County.
The county’s 5.5% unemployment rate is the highest since March 2022, when the county was still in recovery mode from the pandemic-induced shutdown of huge swaths of the local economy. Last year, the July unemployment rate stood at 4.9%.
The rate rose in large part because the labor force – including residents looking for work – swelled by 22,000 jobs in July to reach 5,042,000.  Among those looking for work were thousands of teachers – especially substitute teachers – teaching assistants and administrative support staff at local schools.
The rate was significantly higher than the statewide average for July of 5.2% and way above the national average of 4.3%.
The Employment Development Department also released a breakout of July unemployment rates by city, though unlike the countywide average, these are not adjusted for seasonal factors. The rates for the two largest cities in the county – Los Angeles and Long Beach – were identical at 6.6%.
Among cities with labor forces exceeding 10,000, Lomita had the lowest unemployment rate of 2.7% in July, while Calabasas had the highest rate at 9.2% – roughly one out of every 11 residents.
Among cities in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita, Antelope and Conejo valleys with labor forces exceeding 10,000, the city of San Fernando had the lowest unemployment rate in July of 5.0%, followed by Glendale and Santa Clarita (both at 6.2%).
At the high end in the quad-valley area, after Calabasas and its 9.2% unemployment rate in July, next were Palmdale (8.9%) and Lancaster (8.8%). Burbank’s rate came in at 7.8%.
Turning to employer payrolls, July was a grim month as employers in the county slashed nearly 31,000 jobs, bringing the total number of payroll employees down to 4,558,000. But this number carries an asterisk as all of that total and more – 35,000 job cuts – came from the education sector, with almost all of those cuts from K-12 schools.
These cuts are to be expected every summer as tens of thousands of people in the education sector – including substitute teachers – work on year-to-year contracts that expire with the end of the academic and government fiscal year in June. Many of those get rehired with the start of the next academic year.
The state Employment Development Department takes all of this into account as it releases seasonally adjusted payroll data. Comparing the seasonally adjusted figure for July with June, payroll employment actually rose by 5,800 jobs.
Returning to the unadjusted data, besides education, the other industry reporting significant job losses in July was motion picture/sound recording, which shed 3,600 jobs. This follows several months of gains as the industry recovered from the twin strikes of last year.
The sector reporting the biggest gain in payroll jobs in June was accommodation/food services, up by 3,000. Construction also recorded a substantial gain of 1,500 payroll jobs.
For the 12 months ending in July, county payrolls increased by nearly 74,000 jobs for a growth rate of 1.6% from the same 12-month stretch a year earlier.
Healthcare/social assistance was the biggest job-gainer for that 12-month period, adding 33,000 jobs. Accommodation/food services was next (up 14,300 jobs), followed by private educational services (up 12,300 jobs).
On the downside, professional/business services shed the most jobs during the 12-month period ending in July (down 5,500), with all of that decrease and more coming from the employment services subsector, which includes temporary employment firms.
Another sector recording payroll job drops during that time was manufacturing, which on net shed 2,900 jobs. The total of 315,000 employed in manufacturing in July was down more than 60% from the 821,000 jobs in that sector in July 1990.
The Walt Disney Co. handily beat Wall Street estimates on earnings and just beat on revenue in the fiscal third quarter.
The Burbank entertainment and media giant reported on an adjusted net income of $2.8 billion ($1.39 a share) for the quarter ending June 29, compared with adjusted net income of $2.2 billion ($1.03) in the same period a year earlier. Revenue increased by 4% from the third quarter of the prior year to $23.2 billon.
Analysts on average expected earnings of $1.19 on revenue of $23.1 billion, according to LSEG.
In an executive summary released along with quarterly earnings, Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger and Hugh Johnston, the chief financial officer, said that that a core element to Disney’s century of success is the dynamic way the company leverages its creativity across multiple business and revenue streams to fuel long-term value.
“The unmatched creative power of our film and television studios, the wide appeal of our brands and franchises, and the innovative ways we bring our stories to life in our theme parks and experiences is distinctly Disney in a world of entertainment that is crowded with choices,” the two said.
The combined direct-to-consumer streaming businesses of Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, were profitable for the first time ever, bringing in $47 million in operating income. That was a quarter ahead of when Disney expected to reach that milestone, Iger and Johnston said.
“We remain on track for that profitability to improve in (the fourth quarter),” the pair added.
The number of core Disney+ subscribers increased by almost 12% to 118 million, as compared to the 106 million in the previous year’s third quarter.
Disney continues to invest in its streaming technology to deliver an unparalleled experience, including for advertisers with the best advertiser technology in the streaming business globally, Iger and Johnston said in the summary.
“(We recently) shared our strong upfront results, with overall revenue up 5% driven by sports and streaming,” the pair added. “More than 40% of total upfront dollars committed this year are addressable, inclusive of streaming and digital. We also introduced a Disney Streaming Entertainment ad offering, which matches advertising opportunities with impressions that are served across our family of streaming apps, maximizing supply against premium audiences and outcomes.”
While revenue in the Experiences business segment, which includes theme parks and cruise ships, grew by 2% in the quarter, operating income came in short of its prior guidance, declining by 3% in the third quarter.
“Segment revenue growth was impacted by moderation of consumer demand towards the end of the third quarter that exceeded our previous expectations,” Iger and Johnston said. “While results at domestic parks decreased modestly in the quarter, attendance was comparable year over year and per capita spending was slightly up.”
The pair said they expect that the demand moderation seen in the domestic businesses in (the third quarter) could impact the next few quarters.
“While we are actively monitoring attendance and guest spending and aggressively managing our cost base, we expect (fourth quarter) Experiences segment operating income to decline by mid-single digits versus the prior year, reflecting these underlying demand dynamics as well as impacts at Disneyland Paris from a reduction in normal consumer travel due to the Olympics, and some cyclical softening in China,” Iger and Johnston said in the summary.
