Mayor Garcetti says L.A. creates high-wage jobs, but not for Angelenos

Los Angeles is creating high-wage jobs faster than low-wage jobs, but they’re not going to Angelenos, Mayor Eric Garcetti said Monday.

Discussing the city’s economic future at Town Hall Los Angeles, Garcetti said recent job creation numbers were at odds with the city’s increasing poverty rate.

He said that after consulting with economists, he’s concluded the city needs to pursue better training for its residents entering the workforce.

“We’re attracting good people from other places to fill those jobs because we’re not graduating young people with the skills to fill those jobs,” he said at the event at City Club Los Angeles in downtown.

Garcetti said his administration’s Summer of Learning program, which he outlined in his State of the City address last month, is designed to help. Details of the program are scheduled to be released Tuesday, the mayor’s office said.

“That’s a bridge that I plan on building,” he said Monday.

In last month’s address, Garcetti said the program will include skills-based classes and is part of an effort to “help L.A.’s youth leap ahead, with classes, jobs and safe places to grow and expand their horizons.”