Telecom-related jobs continue to decline in Los Angeles area

The greater Los Angeles metro area continues to lose jobs in the telecommunications sector, according to new data from the Department of Labor. The Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area is the only area in greater Los Angeles that has been adding jobs in the telecommunications sector of late. However, the area is also bringing in the lowest number of jobs overall.
The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa metro area counted 34,800 telecommunications-related jobs at the end of March, following a general downward decline that goes back at least a decade. Job counts were down .9% from the previous month and down 4.2% from March 2010.
Telecom jobs in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale area are declining as well, but at a slower pace. In March, the region counted 25,800 jobs in the sector, down .8% from the previous month and down 3.7% from a year ago. Jobs in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario region were flat year-over-year at 8,700 total, but about 1,000 jobs were lost from the previous month.
The Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine area ended March with 9,000 telecom-related jobs, which is down 1.1% or 100 jobs from the previous month and down 8.2% or 800 jobs from a year ago.
Finally, job growth is also hard to find in the related sectors of computer and electronic product manufacturing, including semiconductor and other electroic component manufacturing. In The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana region counted 82,800 jobs in March, which is down only 200 jobs from a year ago. The Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine area saw no job growth from the 34,000 it counted in computer and electronic product manufacturing a year ago, but it did add about 300 jobs from the previous year in the semiconductor and other electroic component manufacturing sector, ending March with 12,900 jobs.