LOS ANGELES — The Southern California Association of Governments, or SCAG for short, released their 14th annual report on the regional economy, noting several key positive takeaways for 2024.

According to the report, “The SCAG region’s key economic highlights over the past year include continued low unemployment, continued growth in hospitality services, increasing numbers of jobs, increasing housing permits and a recovering tourism industry.”

“We basically avoided a recession,” said Kome Ajise, executive director of SCAG. “That, to me, is one of the big news items. While it may be a little bit of slow growing, it’s steady, and diversity builds resilience. And so that all bodes well for us, coming out of slow growth into a more steady growth.”

Spectrum News spoke to a Silverlake wine bar about their challenges in 2023, and what they hope for in 2024 given this economic forecast.

The full economic report can be found on the SCAG website.