California Economy is Poised to Grow in 2016 and 2017, Report Says

Employers in Los Angeles and the rest of California will keep hiring in the next two years but at a slightly slower pace than in 2015, a new report said. The state is poised to add more than 650,000 jobs this year and next, pushing down the current 7% unemployment rate to about 5.9% by 2017, according to an annual forecast released Wednesday by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. After climbing 3% in 2015, nonfarm jobs are expected to rise 2.4% this year and 1.6% in 2017, the report said. The slower pace of growth will also be reflected in the United States overall, and is a natural slowdown more than six years after the Great Recession ended, said Robert Kleinhenz, the group’s chief economist.