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<br />FOREWORD
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<br />IN the coastal area of the five counties of Southern California,
<br />Los Angeles, Orange, River,gide, San Bernardino, and San Diego,
<br />to which Colorado River water can be delivered through the
<br />Metropolitan Water District aqueduct, the fiscal year 1948-49 was
<br />a period of continuing commercial and industrial expansion marked
<br />by minor adjustments. The index of business activity in Southern
<br />California, compiled by the Security-First National Bank of Los
<br />Angeles, reached an all-time high of 289 (1939-40=100) in August
<br />1948, was 276 in December 1948 and 263 in June 1949, a decline
<br />of 9 per cent from the all-time high, The valuation of building
<br />permits for which records are available in the five counties during
<br />1948 was $1,056,000,000. The total valuation of building permits
<br />in Los Angeles County for the three years 1946. 1947 and 1948 was
<br />$2,124,000,000, and for the calendar year 1948 only, $860,000,000.
<br />Capital invested in new industrial plants and in expansions of
<br />existing plants in the Los Angeles metropolitan area between "V J"
<br />day in 1945 and January 1. 1949 exceeded $400,000,000, as tabul-
<br />ated by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, In the same period
<br />some 240,000 dwelling units were completed in Los Angeles County
<br />alone.
<br />Recently released figures of the U.S. Bureau of the Cen:;us in
<br />"Census of Manufacturers: 1947", the first of such data to be
<br />released since the outbreak of World War II, indicate the remark-
<br />able industrial growth since 1939 of this 5-county area, protected
<br />by Colorado River water. In 1939 there were 5.942 manufacturing
<br />establishments; the average number of production worker;; was
<br />137,356; and the value added by manufacture was $561,149,000,
<br />The corresponding figures for 1947 were 10,585 establishments,
<br />309,198 production workers, and $2,257,640,000 value added by
<br />manufacture, The average number of all employees in 1947 was
<br />395,153 and the average of all wages and salaries was $3,100 per
<br />employee for the year, The wages of production workers only
<br />averaged $2,820, In value added by manufacture, average number
<br />of employees, and total salaries and wages this area stands fifth in
<br />the leading metropolitan areas of the United States; in the number
<br />of manufacturing establishments it stands third.
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