CHAPTER.18- HAWAII

One of the largest industries of the Hawaiian Islands is tourism. Los Angeles also has a large tourism industry. In fact, Tourism in Los Angeles's largest industry in terms of job creation. In 2007, 456,000 jobs were created in the tourism and hospitality industry. Over 25 million people visit L.A each year! LAX is the city's international airport and is the sixth busiest in the world. Most oversees visitors come from Australia as of 2010, however L.A is a popular destination for visitors from all over Asia and Europe. According to Frommer's guide to Los Angeles, some tourist attractions include: Paramount Studios, Hollywood Forever Cemetery, La Brea Tar Pits, Beverly Hills, Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the Santa Monica Pier, among others. 

CHAPTER.16- THE NORTH PACIFIC COAST

Seattle is known as the world's largest company town. This is because of the huge number of people who are employed by such companies as Boeing and Microsoft and the impact they have on the local economy. There are several large employers in Los Angeles as well. The largest employer in L.A is Kroger Co. who own local supermarkets such as Ralphs, and other markets around the country. Interestingly, Boeing is also a significant employer in Los Angeles, employing 14,400 people as of 2009. Entertainment companies are also huge employers in L.A., Walt Disney being the largest with 11,200 employees. Below is a list of the largest employers in Los Angeles County in 2009.



Largest Employers in Los Angeles County, 2009

Employer	Number of Employees
Kroger Co.	140,000
County of Los Angeles	109,500
Los Angeles Unified School District	104,900
City of Los Angeles	56,200
Federal Government*	48,100
Kaiser Permanente	34,100
State of California (non-education)	30,500
University of California, Los Angeles	28,400
Northrop Grumman Corp.	19,100
Boeing Co.	14,400
Long Beach Unified School District	13,100
Target Corp.	13,000
University of Southern California	13,000
Bank of America	12,200**
Walt Disney Co.	11,200**
Home Depot	10,000
Metropolitan Transit Authority (L.A. Co.)	9,700
Providence Health & Services	9,700
Vons	9,600
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center	9,300
Wells Fargo	9,100
ABM Industries Inc.	9,000
AT&T Inc.	8,900
California Institute of Technology	8,500
Fedex Corp.	8,500
Albertsons Southern California Region	7,400**
Catholic Healthcare West	7,200
Edison International	6,700**
Amgen Inc.	6,500
City of Long Beach	6,300
Washington Mutual Inc. (now Chase)	6,000**
Costco Wholesale	5,500
UPS	5,100

Source: http://www.laalmanac.com/employment/em21e.htm

CHAPTER.15- CALIFORNIA

Los Angeles is the most populated city in California, and the second most populated in the country. The city is one of two urban hubs in the state, along with San Francisco to the north. The landscape of the city was shaped by the family automobile (a characteristic that makes L.A different than the more densely populated cities of the East). This gave people greater flexibility when deciding where to live because they didn't necessarily have to be located by public transportation, but it has also contributed to the congestion of the city and the spread out landscape. The urban landscape of L.A is much more spread out than East Coast cities such as New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. Some interesting statistics regarding L.A's car culture include:

• Over half the central part of L.A. is either road or parking designated
• L.A has more cars per household than any other city in the United States
• According to Forbes, L.A has worse traffic congestion than any other city in America
• The L.A. auto show started in 1907, and is now one of the biggest in the world, and the biggest on the West Coast