Contract Opportunities: Local Worker Hiring
In response to the economic downturn, and as part of its commitment to enhancing life for County residents, the County of Los Angeles began in 2010 implementing Local Worker Hiring on many of its large construction projects.Local Worker Hiring is specifically designed to boost the local economy by encouraging contractors to employ qualified local residents to perform work on the projects.
To date, Local Worker Hiring has been implemented on a project by project basis.
Local residency is defined by zip codes in two preference areas within a 5-mile radius of the project followed by a secondary residency preference area that includes zip codes having an unemployment rate in excess of 150 percent of the County average or zip codes including one or more Bank Enterprise Award area census tracts.
On certain projects, a special emphasis is also placed on the hiring of Disadvantaged Local Workers. Individuals without a high school diploma or GED, history of incarceration, unemployed for the 90 days or greater, current recipient of public social service benefits, custodial single parent, and individuals who are homeless are qualified as disadvantaged. For information regarding the level of local participation on recent projects, click on the following http://dpw.lacounty.gov/pmd/localworker/. The Local Worker Hiring Program for the Martin Luther King Jr. Medical Center Replacement Project has been especially successful with more than 50 percent of the total labor hours worked by local residents, see http://dpw.lacounty.gov/pmd/localworker/.