When Phan drives his family around Southern California, he proudly points out the freeway overpasses and bridges he helped build – the ones that carry medicine, food and other essential goods to Californians and the nation.
“We build America, and we keep America moving,” he tells them.
That pride is hard-earned. Phan grew up in Section 8 housing and on food stamps, with few connections and fewer prospects. His opportunities shrank even further after a stint behind bars.
Then Phan joined Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) Local 1309. Now, 22 years later, he is a foreman clearing the way for the new Shoemaker Bridge – a $900 million project rebuilding a critical freight connection to the Port of Long Beach. When his sons’ friends ask him where to find work, he shares his path to a good-paying union job that supports his family and his community.
Whether those young adults will have the same opportunities is now a question of land-use policy: without the industrial facilities that made Phan’s career possible, these jobs may not be around for the next generation.
For too long, debates over the future of industrial land didn’t include accurate economic data because that data didn’t exist. A new Pepperdine School of Public Policy and Beacon Economics white paper aims to change that. It’s the first to examine the economic contributions of Southern California’s industrial real estate.
The study found businesses operating on industrial land – in warehouses, distribution centers, manufacturing facilities, and industrial flex properties across L.A., Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties – support some 1.5 million jobs and generate about $196 billion a year: roughly $1 of every $9 of the region’s GDP.
This interconnected system provides the kind of jobs policymakers say they want: good-paying career opportunities like Phan’s, close to home, that don’t require family connections or an expensive four-year degree. Average annual compensation exceeds $75,000 in L.A. County, $82,000 in Orange County and $64,000 in the Inland Empire. It is the backbone of Southern California’s middle class, paying wages that support families and strengthening the communities where workers live.
Skilled labor is a lift up
Phan praises the union apprenticeships, scholarships, expungement clinics, and job placement services that open doors for people often overlooked – including those coming home from incarceration, as he once did. He’s proud that LIUNA members, like himself, can build careers that support their families, provide secure pensions and offer the opportunity to retire with dignity.
But the land these careers rely on is under pressure from regulations that don’t include this data. Local land-use policies, like South Coast AQMD’s Warehouse Indirect Source Rule, have traditionally judged each warehouse or industrial proposal as a standalone parcel rather than part of a connected system. While we share the goals of reduced emissions, independent analysis shows this rule has driven up costs and put jobs at risk without delivering verifiable emissions reductions.
These regulatory hurdles also miss the white paper’s key finding that land-use decisions should optimize the region’s industrial ecosystem. The economic benefits of Southern California’s industrial land derive from its proximity to ports, rail, freight corridors, suppliers and deep pools of skilled labor. When industrial businesses are displaced, jobs like Phan’s don’t move down the road. They leave the region, often forever.
With this new data, policymakers have a clearer picture of an ecosystem that relies on many individual parts working together: the facilities, roads, ports and, most importantly, the people who depend on them for work.
The next young adult who asks where good work can be found deserves the answer Phan gives them – that there are jobs in the local supply chain that can support them and their future families.
Whether that answer is still valid will be determined through the zoning, permitting, and other land-use decisions that shape Southern California’s future, economic competitiveness, and ladder to opportunity.
Jon Preciado is business manager for the Southern California District Council of Laborers and Tim Jemal is chief executive of the Supply Chain Federation and NAIOP SoCal.
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