City of Los Angeles
Comprehensive Economic
Development Strategy
Strategy Committee Kickoff | March 2026
City of Los Angeles EWDD
Today's Agenda
Welcome & Introductions
10 min
What the CEDS Is & Why It Matters Now
5 min
Project Scope, Process & Timeline
5 min
Role of the Strategy Committee
10 min
Initial Economic Context & Discussion
20 min
How Input Will Be Used & Next Steps
10 min
Welcome & Introductions
PURPOSE OF THIS MEETING
Orient the Strategy Committee on the CEDS process, share early research findings, and capture your initial priorities to inform the next phase of work.
Please share:
1
Your name and organization
2
Your role or connection to economic development in LA
What Is the CEDS?
A Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy is the foundational plan that guides economic development for the City of Los Angeles. Required by the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA), it serves as the region's roadmap for job creation, industry competitiveness, and long-term resilience.
Regional Roadmap
Sets priorities for economic development across the City through 2032. Aligns land use, workforce, and institutional capacity.
Federal Funding Gateway
EDA requires a current CEDS for Public Works and Economic Adjustment Assistance applications.
Positions LA to compete for federal funding tied to clear, implementable strategies
CEDS + Jobs Plan
Includes a dedicated Jobs Plan targeting industry growth, workforce alignment, and sector-specific job creation strategies.
Planned completion by end of 2027
Why Is the City Updating the CEDS Now?
01
The economy has structurally shifted since COVID: job growth concentrated in lower-wage local demand-driven services while higher-wage tradable sectors decline locally despite growing nationally.
02
The January 2025 wildfires created urgent needs for economic recovery, rebuilding, and resilience planning across impacted communities.
03
The 2028 Olympics present a major opportunity that requires coordinated investment, workforce training and alignment, and infrastructure readiness.
04
Federal funding uncertainty demands a strong, EDA-compliant CEDS. EDA requires CEDS linkage for Public Works and Economic Adjustment grants.
Project Scope, Process & Timeline
IN SCOPE: CEDS update, Jobs Plan, SWOT, Evaluation Framework
Sep 2025
Project kickoff
Dec 2025 - Feb 2026
Stakeholder interviews (15 Council Districts + agencies)
Mar 2026
Critical Industry Trends Report delivered
Mar 2026
Strategy Committee Kickoff (today)
Apr 2026
Initial Situational Assessment final + Summary Background draft
May - Sep 2026
5 public meetings across LA neighborhoods
Nov 2026
SWOT Analysis draft for committee review, focused on key constraints and tradeoffs
Jan 2027
SWOT final + Strategic Direction Action Plan + Evaluation Framework
Feb 2027
Full CEDS draft delivered to EWDD
Mar - Jun 2027
Jobs Plan finalization
Nov 2027
Final designed CEDS submitted to EDA
Complete
Today
Upcoming
6 Deliverables: Situational Assessment | Critical Industry Trends | SWOT Analysis | Evaluation Framework | Final CEDS | Jobs Plan
Role of the Strategy Committee
Required by EDA under 13 CFR §303.6.
The committee broadly represents the City's main economic interests and is the principal facilitator of the CEDS process.
What We're Asking of You
Review research, help identify priorities and tradeoffs, and provide expert feedback.
Identify challenges data alone misses.
Help shape strategic priorities based on constraints and feasibility.
Validate findings and challenge assumptions based on on-the-ground realities.
Champion the process within your networks.
Why This Matters
CEDS is a conduit for federal funding: EDA requires project linkage to an approved CEDS for grants.
Past LA plans set ambitious goals largely unmet. This process must be different: realistic, accountable.
Ongoing engagement meetings (virtual + in-person); review drafts between meetings.
Your input directly shapes strategy; final CEDS submitted to EDA for approval.
Economic Context
Findings from the Critical Industry Trends Report,
Initial Situational Assessment, and Stakeholder Engagement
Los Angeles City - Economy
1.82M
Payroll Employees
(2024)
9% growth since 2014
$92,800
Average
Annual Wage
Higher than County ($83,600)
70%+
of Job Growth in
Non-Tradable Services
Lower wages, less multiplier
0.0%
Average Annual Job Growth
Since 2019
Post-pandemic stall
Job growth is concentrated in locally demand-driven, lower-wage sectors, while higher-wage tradable industries that drive income growth and competitiveness are shrinking locally despite growing nationally.
POST-COVID PATTERNS
Accelerated
Education
Utilities
Slowed but positive
Healthcare, Prof Svcs, Govt
Reversed to decline
Accommodation, Info, Finance
Long-term decline
Manufacturing, Retail, Wholesale
LA's Industries
Stakeholder input indicates these trends are reinforced by institutional constraints, not only market forces
LEGACY GROWTH
Healthcare, Education, Professional, Scientific and Technical Services, Arts / Entertainment / Recreation, Government,
Real Estate, Admin Services
RESTRUCTURING
Information (Incorporates Hollywood),
Other Services
EMERGING
Construction,
Natural Resources / Utilities
DECLINING
Manufacturing, Wholesale,
Retail, Finance, Management of companies
Concentrated
in LA (LQ > 1)
Not yet
Concentrated (LQ<1)
Positive 2019-2024 growth →
← Negative 2019-2024 growth
Pre-COVID Positive growth, reversed post-pandemic : growth → decline
RECOVERING
Logistics (Transportation and Warehousing)
Accommodation and food Service
LQ ~ 1
Industries are classified by concentration (LQ) and post-COVID growth to assess competitiveness and structural shifts
LA's Critical Legacy Industries (LQ>1 and Positive Growth)
LEGACY GROWTH
Sector
LQ
(2024)
Pre-COVID
'14-'19
Post-COVID
'19-'24
Avg Wage
(2024)
Competitive
Effect
2024
Employment
Jobs Added
'19-'24
Healthcare & Social Svcs
1.2
+3.9%
+1.5%
$55,500
+17,591
324,000
+23,527
Educational Services
1.4
+2.0%
+4.0%
$83,800
+5,413
65,000
+11,648
Prof, Scientific & Tech
1.1
+2.9%
+0.8%
$141,400
-4,092
142,634
+5,760
Arts, Entertain & Recreation
1.4
+5.6%
+0.2%
$144,400
+3,071
42,547
+516
Source: EDD Data, Beacon Economics. Competitive Effect from shift-share analysis (Figure 17): positive = LA outperforming national trends; negative = LA underperforming.
Largest job creator but concentrated in lower-wage segments. Growth in home health, practitioners; hospitals declining
High-wage anchor with fastest growth rate post-COVID.
High-wage anchor, but growth has slowed post-COVID
#1 among peer cities but near-flat since 2019
Restructuring Legacy Industries (LQ>1 and Negative Growth)
RESTRUCTURING
Sector
LQ
(2024)
Pre-COVID
'14-'19
Post-COVID
'19-'24
Avg Wage
(2024)
Competitive
Effect
2024
Employment
Jobs Added
'19-'24
Information (Hollywood)
1.7
+1.6%
-2.2%
$206,500
-15,544
56,803
-6,603
Other Services
0.9
+1.9%
-0.2%
$56,200
-9,130
67,636
-566
Source: EDD Data, Beacon Economics. Competitive Effect from shift-share analysis (Figure 17): positive = LA outperforming national trends; negative = LA underperforming.
Motion picture jobs -5.5%/yr since 2019
Emerging Industries (LQ<1 and Positive Growth)
EMERGING
Sector
LQ
(2024)
Pre-COVID
'14-'19
Post-COVID
'19-'24
Avg Wage
(2024)
Competitive
Effect
2024
Employment
Jobs Added
'19-'24
Construction
0.6
+5.3%
+0.9%
$78,600
+4,563
53,045
+2,205
Natural Resources / Util
0.2
-1.2%
+3.8%
$111,600
+429
5,181
+875
Source: EDD Data, Beacon Economics. Competitive Effect from shift-share analysis (Figure 17): positive = LA outperforming national trends; negative = LA underperforming.
Declining Industries
DECLINING
Sector
LQ
(2024)
Pre-COVID
'14-'19
Post-COVID
'19-'24
Avg Wage
(2024)
Competitive
Effect
2024
Employment
Jobs Added
'19-'24
Manufacturing
0.6
-3.9%
-2.7%
$83,400
-53,623
73,707
-10,846
Wholesale Trade
0.8
-2.0%
-2.5%
$86,200
-18,259
56,990
-7,792
Mgmt of Companies
0.6
+2.0%
-5.8%
$207,400
-8,731
18,160
-6,356
Retail Trade
0.7
-0.2%
-0.7%
$52,000
-39,063
134,684
-4,869
Finance & Insurance
0.7
+0.4%
-1.5%
$209,700
-10,659
57,612
-4,606
Source: EDD Data, Beacon Economics. Competitive Effect from shift-share analysis (Figure 17): positive = LA outperforming national trends; negative = LA underperforming.
Aerospace product and parts manufacturing grew 1.6% post Covid
Pharmaceutical and medicine grew 12.1% pre-Covid, declined 3.3% post- covid
(LQ<1 and Negative Growth)
Recovering Legacy Industries (LQ ~ 1 Pre-COVID Positive growth, reversed post-pandemic : growth → decline)
RECOVERING
Sector
LQ
(2024)
Pre-COVID
'14-'19
Post-COVID
'19-'24
Avg Wage
(2024)
Competitive
Effect
2024
Employment
Jobs Added
'19-'24
Transport & Warehousing
1.0
+8.6%
-1.3%
$98,000
+9,684
76,818
-5,284
Accommodation & Food
1.0
+2.9%
-0.7%
$38,700
-1,066
170,519
-5,637
Source: EDD Data, Beacon Economics. Competitive Effect from shift-share analysis (Figure 17): positive = LA outperforming national trends; negative = LA underperforming.
Recent Trends
Outreach – Phase 1
Input from interviews with all 15 Council Districts + City agency leaders (Dec 2025 - Feb 2026)
Permitting is the most consistently cited constraint across districts
12-14 month waits for routine approvals. Small businesses affected.
Need for a coordinated economic development strategy or empowered entity
No single entity is responsible for attraction, retention, or expansion. Peer cities resource this intentionally.
City structure is not set up to execute economic development (fragmentation + EWDD concerns)
Film and entertainment production is leaving LA – retention strategy needed
Below-the-line workers report being out of work 12-18 months and no coordinated retention strategy
Workforce programs exist but are underutilized due to low awareness
Business Source praised where known, but stakeholders noted awareness needs to grow among businesses and staff..
Homelessness and public safety are direct barriers to business investment and retention
Encampments and safety conditions cited as deterrent to investment across all geographies.
Small businesses face persistent COVID debt, rising rents, and limited access to capital
Limited capital access and lack of commercial rent protections. A structural driver of corridor vacancies.
External shocks continue to disrupt local economic activity
ICE immigration raids have greatly negatively impacted downtown and eastside district vitality and disrupted communities
Initial Situational Assessment (1 of 2)
From the Initial Situational Assessment: prior reports, stakeholder interviews, and peer city analysis
City Institutional
Capacity
COVID demonstrated the City can act decisively when political will exists. But the current institutional capacity to execute economic development strategy is weak: understaffing, 12-14 month permit delays, and departmental fragmentation require businesses to navigate multiple agencies with no single point of coordination.
EWDD has been the intended vehicle for economic development but remains under-resourced.
Prior plans set ambitious goals for EWDD that have largely gone unmet. Strong council-level control over land use and spending limits citywide coordination. Infrastructure maintenance and grid capacity constrain redevelopment in key corridors.
Housing Supply
& Land Use
Land use is a critical but underutilized policy tool that constrains labor supply, wages, business costs, and business formation.
Previous plans set extremely limited housing goals relative to the scale of the problem. Housing production remains below benchmarks.
Restrictive zoning and slow permitting raise costs for developers, who
pass them to renters and buyers or abandon projects. Commercial real estate vacancies are high, but locations and sizes are misaligned with business needs.
Reformulating zoning for smaller-scale mixed-use development could
redistribute economic activity across neighborhoods.
Peer cities that acted broadly on supply (Sacramento, Austin) saw measurable affordability gains.
Initial Situational Assessment (2 of 2)
From the Initial Situational Assessment: prior reports, stakeholder interviews, and peer city analysis
Job Creation &
Workforce Development
Job creation and workforce development are complementary but separate goals. Previous plans used workforce development as an engine for job creation; the relationship works the other way.
Training must be targeted to local firms and industry needs. Programs tied to specific employers (e.g., HireLAX) have worked best.
Previous documents focused on the same few industries (film, fashion, aerospace, trade, biosciences) with little attention to emerging sectors.
Emerging opportunities in port/blue tech and mega-event procurement (World Cup 2026, Olympics 2028) lack workforce pipelines.
Exogenous shocks, including federal immigration enforcement and wildfires, disrupted recovery in multiple communities.
Geographic Diversity &
Neighborhood Economies
A one-size-fits-all approach fails in a fragmented and unequal economic geography. LA is polycentric: industries cluster in specific neighborhoods, extreme disparities exist in resources and opportunity, and the previous CEDS left most of the city unclassified.
Stakeholders noted that smaller, targeted partnerships have been more effective than broad citywide programs.
Industrial land is being lost to rezoning without analysis of the economic tradeoffs for surrounding communities.
Neighborhood-level strategies must complement citywide goals. Sub-city industry analysis can reveal locally growing clusters too small to detect at the citywide level but significant enough to anchor district-level economic development.
Priority Setting Exercise: We will need to prioritize where to focus first.
Which two areas should be addressed first to meaningfully change LA’s economic trajectory?
Top 2 priorities
A. Permitting and regulatory reform
B. Creative economy competitiveness and film industry retention
C. Place-based economic development (corridors and districts)
D. Workforce alignment with industry needs
E. Small business access to capital and cost pressures
F. Economic development governance and City capacity to execute
G. Housing affordability/supply and land use reform
H. Business attraction, retention, and expansion strategy
I. Infrastructure capacity and grid modernization
J. Major events readiness and local business access
https://app.sli.do/event/e9veY2Fy6bNKZWWmMjZhWc
Choose the top 2 areas that would have the greatest impact in the next 5 years
Next Steps
HOW INPUT WILL BE USED
Discussion feeds directly into the SWOT analysis and strategy development.
Your perspectives on challenges, tradeoffs, and priorities will shape which issues move forward.
UPCOMING ACTIVITIES
Public engagement meetings (5 neighborhoods)
May - September 2026
SWOT analysis draft for committee review
November 2026
Next Strategy Committee meeting
TBD (June-July)
Preliminary SWOT analysis
May 2026
Wrap-Up: Key Takeaways
LA City's economy has structurally shifted: growth is in locally demand-driven services, while tradable high-wage sectors are contracting. The CEDS must address both sides.
Research and stakeholder input point to the following binding constraints: institutional capacity (permitting, coordination, governance), housing and land use, and workforce alignment.
This CEDS is a federal funding gateway. EDA requires it for Public Works and Economic Adjustment grants. The strategy must be implementable.
Your input will shape the SWOT analysis and strategy phases.
Next Strategy Committee meeting: TBD (cadence).
SWOT draft for committee review by November 2026.
Final CEDS by November 2027.
Final questions or comments?
Thank You
City of Los Angeles
Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy
For questions or follow-up, contact
Economic & Workforce Development Department (EWDD)