Report: Southern Calif. Health Care Industry Likely To See Job Growth

In the coming years, the health care industry in Southern California is likely to see large gains in job growth, according to a report released Wednesday by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation's Kyser Center for Economic Research, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reports.

The group's 2015-2016 Economic Forecast and Industry Outlook assessed job and wage growth in Southern California (Smith, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, 2/18).

Health Care Industry Findings

According to the report, the health care industry in Southern California employed 1.1 million workers last year, up by 3.5% from 2013. Of all the health care jobs in Southern California, about 617,000 were in Los Angeles County, accounting for more than 54% of the industry's employment in the region.

Biomedical firms focusing on medical devices and pharmaceuticals accounted for about 78,800 workers in Southern California in the second quarter of 2014, according to the report. Specifically:

• Orange County firms employed 27,700 medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturing workers, up by 0.6% from Q2 2013;
• Los Angeles County firms employed 26,100 such workers, up by 2.3% from Q2 2013; and
• San Diego firms employed 17,200 such workers, up by 4.7% from Q2 2013.

Meanwhile, the ambulatory health care services subsector added 12,800 jobs from Q2 2013 to Q2 2014, according to the report (LAEDC report, February 2015).