20% Cut in L.A. Library Jobs

For now, Los Angeles libraries have cut Friday morning hours in 72 branch locations in order to save money. By June, the hours will be cut again, and the reduction in staff from a combination of layoffs and retirements is estimated to be around 20%.

City-wide, as many as 4,000 layoffs are planned, the library impact being merely one several impacted areas.

$700 million over 16 months is the budget gap that L.A. is currently faced with, and it’s projected to widen to $1 billion by 2013.

“Libraries are going to be closed,” predicts Cheryl Parisi, chair of the Coalition of Los Angeles City Unions. The coalition is an umbrella group for 22,000 employees spanning from librarians to street maintenance workers. “They are going to cut maintenance for parks. You are not going to have crews out filing potholes.”

Pension contributions are expected to increase dramatically, a key repercussion of market losses from the recession.