Finance Bulletin, February 2016

Labor market conditions in California and the U.S. improved further in 2015 while overall inflation remained low. California home building activity picked up pace in 2015 after an essentially flat 2014, while home sales ramped up in 2015 after slowing in the prior two years. U.S. real Gross Domestic Product increased 2.4 percent in 2015, matching the growth in 2014. Labor Market Conditions California added 60,400 jobs in December after adding just 7,200 jobs in November. All major industry sectors, except mining and logging, gained jobs in December. The largest gains were in professional and business service (15,800) and construction (11,200). The other growth sectors included trade, transportation, and utilities (7,700), leisure and hospitality (6,800), information (5,000), financial activities (3,900), government (3,700), other services (2,700), educational and health services (2,100), and manufacturing (1,600). Mining and logging lost 100 jobs.