Marek Gootman, senior fellow, Brookings Institution, provided a briefing from the California Jobs First report during the May IEGO gathering. The California Jobs First Report is a strategic document that will help to bring more investment to the region  

One of the first things addressed was a new approach for understanding job quality and concentrations within sectors, ranging from not just a fixed view of what a good job is by a median wage standard, but also promising jobs, and how people move in careers across occupations and across industries. He added, Brookings is focused on things that are produced or services that are delivered and sold outside the Inland Empire and bring new money and wealth in in addition to economic mobility and access.  

For his presentation, Gootman highlighted industry sector opportunities for the region. 

“Our region boomed and was sustained throughout the pandemic in job creation. But that job creation was driven by local serving industry where you simply circulate the money in the local economy,” Gootman shared. “While we’ve been fantastic in job creation, we have lagged in terms of average earnings and productivity. And by our analysis, the reason for those lags are tied to the less competitive value add part of the logistics industry.”  

The region is doing better in terms of whether folks are struggling to make ends meet. Nearly 60% of residents in the region can meet basic budget requirements for food, housing, transportation, and childcare. However roughly 60% of people who are struggling to make ends meet don’t have more than a high school education.  

“When we look at opportunity jobs in the region, about 40% are quality jobs, which means they meet the standards of a wage that gets you to where you’re able to get by and get ahead. If we want to cut the number of people who are struggling working families by 50% as a policy choice, then we need to find this number of jobs to achieve that goal,” said Gootman. Areas of opportunity noted by Gootman include advanced manufacturing and cybersecurity. 

His final comments noted, “A challenge for this region is that we think of ourselves as a suburb of Los Angeles. We are almost the same size as Phoenix. We’re a different economy the same way that Sacramento is a different economy from the Bay Area. We are under invested if we think that we’re going to be a different stronger economy” Gootman shared.