The week in review: October 19–23
The week of October 19–23 on la.metrotrendlines.com, in 10 posts.
Monday, October 19 — Buy or rent: the Los Angeles ratio, September 2026. The typical Los Angeles-area home was worth $950,020 in September 2026, and the typical asking rent was $2,929 a month. Divide the first by a year of the second and you get the price-to-rent ratio: 27.0.
Monday, October 19 — Los Angeles asking rents, September 2026. The typical asking rent in the Los Angeles metro was $2,929 a month in September 2026, up 1.8% from a year earlier — a record in the dollars on the lease. The second chart takes inflation out.
Tuesday, October 20 — Los Angeles’s home market, August 2026. Homes in the Los Angeles metro sold for 99.6% of their list price on average in August 2026, against 99.5% a year earlier, and 38% of them sold above it. The most competitive month in this record was April 2022, at 106.2% of list.
Tuesday, October 20 — Los Angeles wages after inflation, September 2026. Private-sector workers in the Los Angeles metro averaged $41.84 an hour in September 2026. Adjusted for inflation that is $41.84 in today’s money, down 0.7% from a year earlier.
Wednesday, October 21 — Los Angeles-metro manufacturing jobs, September 2026. Los Angeles-metro manufacturers employed 444,800 people in September 2026, down 1.2% from a year earlier — 7.1% of all payroll jobs in the metro. The sector peaked at 1,071,500 jobs in March 1990 and has shed roughly 58% of that since.
Wednesday, October 21 — Los Angeles-metro payrolls, September 2026. Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim employers reported 6,282,100 nonfarm jobs in September 2026 (not seasonally adjusted), up 30,200 — +0.5% — from a year earlier.
Thursday, October 22 — Los Angeles-metro construction jobs, September 2026. The Los Angeles metro’s construction and mining employers had 253,600 jobs on payroll in September 2026, up 0.0% from a year earlier. That is 4.0% of all payroll jobs in the metro, against 4.1% a year before.
Thursday, October 22 — Restaurant and hotel jobs, September 2026. Los Angeles-metro restaurants, bars, hotels and venues employed 782,000 people in September 2026, up 1.5% from a year earlier — 12.4% of all payroll jobs in the metro. No other series on this site records 2020 as plainly.
Friday, October 23 — California jobless claims, week of Oct 17, 2026. California workers filed 38,585 initial unemployment claims in the week ending Oct 17, 2026; the steadier four-week average is 38,080, down 9.5% from the same weeks a year ago. Read the chart in two parts.
Friday, October 23 — Los Angeles information-sector employment, September 2026. The Los Angeles metro’s information sector employed 187,000 people in September 2026, down 5.7% from a year earlier. That is 3.0% of every payroll job in the metro, against 3.2% a year before.
The week in review: every post from October 19–23, summarised from its own listing blurb and linked. Assembled each Saturday from the posts that actually published that week.