Photo of the Day: When construction jobs disappear

This picture shows idle construction trailers in the Inland Empire. It's a snapshot from Sandler O'Neill & Partners analyst Aaron Deer's recent tour of the I.E.

News item from the L.A. Times today: According to today's report on the job market, "the construction sector was among the hardest-hit parts of the economy, losing 43,000 jobs" in June.

Note: Because the Inland Empire is a center of California's booming logistics industry -- which includes warehousing -- it's likely that these trailers reflect a construction slowdown far beyond the I.E.

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Photo: Sandler O'Neill & Partners

Comments

[desmo]

Can you imagine the smell at the Port-A-Potty yard?

[sheila]

wouldn't it be great if schwarzenegger would put his policy where his mouth is and get all these guys back to work installing rooftop solar and backyard wind to the 50 million structures in CA starving for on-site renewable power generation and conservation retrofits?

all we need are fair market feed-in tariffs like germany's, capital financing and incentives like san francisco's, and a greatly simplified permitting/paperwork process.

voila. 50,000 local skilled construction jobs, income streams for people who do the right thing, no more eminent domain for massive powerlines comin' your way, thanks to Enron's 2005 Energy Policy Act, and no demolished wilderness for giant solar and wind "farms." utilities can hit their RPS requirements without spending any money. win/win/win/win/win

what's not to love?

[Phil Apino]

That picture looks like Mayor Villaraigosa's dream city for the new millenium.

High density, affordable housing.

Uh-oh. I don't want to give him any ideas.

[yourkillingmelarry]

A picture can say a thousand words can't it.

[dclogang]

These trailors will soon be used by all the people that were foreclosed on.

YIKES... that was a little mean.. I'm sorry. Just a frustrated, fence sitting renter..

[Rob Dawg]

All the previous occupants' previous late model SUVs and Pickups are in a similar lot along the 101 in Oxnard.

[anonymous]

From my experience, construction workers are mostly two income families, with the construction worker as the primary bread winner. They just plunged from middle class to poverty level. These families are seriously hurting right now. So are their kids.

It's a real issue in all of the big foreclosure markets. This is so not funny.

[Uncle Billy Went to Washington]

Can we ask our friends at Ucla to see if they can organize a movie or slideshow showing us a time lapse of development in various communities, using satellite photos.

[BottomFisher]

Homeless construction trailers....so sad

[Inland Empire]

If this is the location I think it is, the lot has pretty much looked like this for several years.

[JK]

They just plunged from middle class to poverty level. These families are seriously hurting right now. So are their kids.

It's a real issue in all of the big foreclosure markets. This is so not funny.

Posted by: anonymous | July 03, 2008 at 03:40 PM

Oh boo hoo! These idiots hurt a lot of families that were waiting to buy their first home. I don't feel one ounce of sympathy for them... besides, most construction workers here in California are illegal aliens. Maybe this will make them go home. Of course, we'll be stuck with their anchor babies.

[shockg]

Oh boo hoo! These idiots hurt a lot of families that were waiting to buy their first home. I don't feel one ounce of sympathy for them... besides, most construction workers here in California are illegal aliens. Maybe this will make them go home. Of course, we'll be stuck with their anchor babies.

Posted by: JK | July 04, 2008 at 07:38 AM "

What disgusting racist comment from an angry renter who missed the boat. Peter, Is it asking too much to ban such comments and ban these idiots fron the blog?

[RM]

What a lot of people obviously still don't understand is that this problem is not being contained to the housing sector only. We have been in a business, totally unrelated to housing, for over 15 years and since last summer we put in place a hiring freeze. As employees left we did not replace them, but now we are actually going to start laying people off, as the situation doesn't seem to be improving. I for one would not be happy to see this continue because a lot more jobs than people realize are at stake, unless of course you're already on welfare.

[construction dude]

Why should shockg be so outraged by the truth - which is that many construction workers in California are illegal aliens.
Illegal alien is not a race and therefore this is not a racist comment but a fact that anybody who has worked in construction and had to compete for a poverty level wage knows all too well.
Shockg - save your liberal elitist rant for those who can afford to hear it!

[JK]

Shockg, which part of my statement is not true? Pulling the "you are a racist" card doesn't work on me anymore. It is what got us into the situation we are in. Everyone is so "politically correct" these days, people are even afraid to point out the big white elephant in the room. Illegal immigration has hurt our economy, our social fabric, our schools and yes, even our real estate market.

How many Americans have been forced to move from Los Angeles to flee the deterioration brought on by the influx of illegal aliens? This raises prices in safer areas as more and more people look for schools where English is not the foreign language. Funny, the people that call you a racist for pointing out the damage illegals have wrought don't have to live among them.

I guarantee you that if illegal immigrants could afford to live in West LA, Beverly Hills, Brentwood or La Jolla, the problem would have been solved a long time ago.

[Tony]

It makes me sick to hear about people struggling so much.
I am a teacher and I get paid quite well so I'm not complaining but some of my co workers are the laziest POS. They don't teach, they just complain about the low quality students.
I hate to say it, but the school system needs to be purged of its lazy teachers and replace them with people who really appreciate the profession.

[yours truly, Johnny Dollar]

Shockg: what racist?
People who speak Spanish are a language group;
not a race. You may want to call someone a
"language groupist." As for me, I am now getting
telemarketing calls in Spanish. This California toilet
needs to be flushed; the sewage returns south.
Just because you over-run something,
doesn't make it yours. Theft is theft.
If all these illegals were so valuable, let them
return to their country and be valuable there.

[Anthrodiva]

@Inland Empire

I totally agree with you, especially if by several, you mean the-entire-past-12-years-I have-lived-out here.

[aldo818]

Ever notice that illegal aliens always become the scapegoats for a downturn in the economy?

Then, when the economy is booming, they are suddenly the backbone to our economy by helping us keep our food prices down and handling the medial jobs that need such desperate filling.

Kinda reminds me of the 80's when I saw detoit workers beating a japanese car with bats and crowbars.

As much as I agree that there are way too many ignorant people in our cities - I put full blame for this downturn on lenders that were giving people (all races, genders and income levels) loans that they could not afford or understand.

just my two cents