PALMDALE - The Antelope Valley's
population growth is driving the region's economic
engine, adding more households with spending power and
fueling local job growth.
Nearly 2,150 additional households a year
have moved to the Antelope Valley since 2005, and the
average household income of those living in the region
less than four years is $67,900 - 3.5 percent higher
than the overall area's average household income, a
study has found.
"It's household economic stimulus to the
economy and the job market," said Alonzo Pedrin, who led
the study. "Every dollar spent by new households
generates $1.28 in economic activity in the Antelope
Valley."
Since 2000, the number of residents
joining the work force has grown 1.56 percent annually;
job growth has gone up 1.78 percent annually in the same
period.
"You are adding local jobs at a faster
rate than you are adding workers," Pedrin said.
The figures were part of a $55,000 labor
market study done by Anaheim-based Alfred Gobar
Associates for the Greater Antelope Valley Economic
Alliance, or GAVEA, a nonprofit economic development
organization supported by local cities and businesses
and other government agencies.
The study, one of two released last week,
was based on telephone interviews with 900 people and is
part of an effort to recruit new employers, get
commuters off the Antelope Valley Freeway, boost local
wages and improve the local economy.
The Gobar study estimated the population
of the Antelope Valley, a 2,800-square-mile region
stretching from Acton to Ridgecrest, at about 506,400,
up from about 418,000 in 2000.
The Antelope Valley has a good mix of
local jobs at all earning levels but more needs to be
done to reduce the number of commuters, the study said.
The study estimated that 61,600 of
region's residents, one-third of the work force, commute
an hour or more to jobs outside the valley, the study
said.
On average, commuters reported 17percent
higher earnings than people who work locally, but
one-third reported earning less than the average annual
Antelope Valley salary of $44,630.
Average household income in the Antelope
Valley was estimated at $65,600, which is about 6percent
below the Los Angeles County average of $69,800.
Paralleling growth in population is
development of new space for industry, according to a
second study presented by GAVEA.
Since 2004, the Antelope Valley has
constructed more than 1.7million square feet of new
industrial buildings - 1.03 million in Lancaster and
737,886 in Palmdale, the report said.
The report showed that 761,376 square
feet of the region's 9.6 million square feet of
industrial space is vacant, a vacancy rate of 7.87
percent, up from 1.05 percent in 2004 but lower than
14.6 percent in 1991.
The current vacancy rate in Lancaster is
3.67 percent; in Palmdale, more than 19 percent.
"The buildings are not all full yet.
There is a real opportunity here," GAVEA president Mel
Layne said. "7.87 is not a bad place to be for promoting
the Antelope Valley."
The 9.6 million square feet figures does
not include "special use" industrial space at Air Force
Plant 42, Lockheed Martin's Plant 10, or Site 9, the
former B-1B bomber complex now owned by Los Angeles
World Airports.
The industrial space of those areas
totals more than 7 million square feet and has a vacancy
rate of nearly 9 percent, the report said.
