03/29/2024

News

Trump Comments on U.S. Factories Make It Awkward for Apple

Apple today has only one plant of its own—in Cork, Ireland. Its contract manufacturers operate two small U.S. plants, in Austin, Texas and Fremont, Calif. Those facilities have never grown beyond their narrow role making Apple’s Mac Pro computer, a niche product that sells for $3,000 or more.

. . . Apple last opened manufacturing facilities for computers in the 1990s with plants in Fountain, Colo. and Elk Grove, Calif. It shut down its last U.S. manufacturing line in 2004, laying off 235 full-time workers in Elk Grove.

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Why another S.F. company is moving its headquarters out of state

The loss of another fast-growing company could spur soul-searching over the Bay Area’s cost of doing business, whether it’s San Francisco’s $1.5 million median home price, high cost of living or escalating labor costs. 

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Upscale jeans maker True Religion files for bankruptcy protection

Upscale jeans maker True Religion Apparel Inc. said Wednesday that it filed for bankruptcy reorganization, making it the latest Southern California apparel firm to falter as people embrace online shopping. But True Religion said that in tandem with filing under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy laws, its owner, TowerBrook Capital Partners, a private equity firm, reached a proposed deal with lenders to slash True Religion’s debt by about three-quarters as it continues operating.

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California is Still Golden for College Graduates

Over the past 15 years, 1.5 million more people have left California than have moved here from other states, according to estimates from the California Department of Finance. Remarkably, even in the face of this outflow, California still experiences net gains of college graduates (those with at least a bachelor’s degree). Over the past five years, California ranks second among all states in net gains of college graduates from other states, even as it ranks first in net losses of less educated adults. 

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Electronics company to pare down San Jose operations, move manufacturing out of state

The company [Avnet] is closing two of its three Silicon Valley facilities and laying off nearly 100 employees as it moves its manufacturing operations out of state.

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Kellogg will close its Roseville office and lay off 230 employees

Kellogg Co., the multinational food producing company, plans to lay off 230 employees and close its Northern California sales office in Roseville.

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Keurig Green Mountain Closes Plant

The Castroville manufacturing and distribution center will officially close July 3, 2017, and all 183 employees will be laid off. Keurig has owned the warehouse since 2010.

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Opinion: Leaving California? After slowing, the trend intensifies

The apparent growing appetite for suburban living presents a unique challenge to California. The state policy is aggressively anti-suburban, placing ever-higher hurdles on any development on the periphery. This, over time, is slowing construction in the interior and forcing housing prices unnaturally up, even in these areas.

Some so-called progressives hail these trends, as forcing what they seem to see as less desirable elements — that is, working- and middle-class people — out of the state. They allege that this is balanced out by a surge of highly educated workers coming to California. Essentially, the model is that of a gated community, with a convenient servant base nearby.

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Business-Friendly States Are Growing at the Expense of Those that Tax and Spend

By examining state-by-state migration trends, it is easy to see which states are enacting pro-growth policies. After all, Americans have shown that they are willing to “vote with their feet” for better economic opportunities even if it means leaving their home state. The top-ten states in the 2017 rankings have gained more than 3.75 million residents in the past decade. The bottom-ten states, meanwhile, have lost more than 3.78 million residents over the same period. In addition to experiencing a mass exodus of residents, states with oppressively high tax rates such as New York, Illinois, and California have lost vast economic opportunities and vast amounts of wealth. Job growth over the last ten years was nearly three times higher in the top ten states than it was in the bottom ten.

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Movement Out of California Was the Most Influential Driver of U.S. Migration Patterns in Early 2017

We found that some of the most expensive metros had the largest net outflow—the number of local users searching for a home in a different metro minus the number of users from another metro searching for a home in the subject metro. The San Francisco Bay Area topped the list of places with the largest net outflow, followed by New York and Los Angeles.

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Rich States, Poor States, 10th Edition

Rich States, Poor States examines the latest movements in state economic growth. The data ranks the 2017 economic outlook of states using fifteen equally weighted policy variables, including various tax rates, regulatory burdens and labor policies. The ninth edition examines trends over the last few decades that have helped or hurt states’ economies.

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Report: Bay Area residents are leading the nationwide migration

Real estate brokerage site Redfin released its annual “migration report” on Monday and found that those residing in San Francisco Metro are the most likely to leave. The catalyst for moving – high housing costs – should surprise no one.

Analyzing a sample of 1 million Redfin users, the site found that 19.4 percent of potential homebuyers in San Francisco searched outside of the region for houses.

San Francisco also recorded the highest “”net outflow”” – the number of potential homebuyers looking to move to San Francisco Metro subtracted from the number of those who want to leave. The region’s outflow was double that of New York.

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Beige Book (12th District)

The labor market continued to tighten, and wage pressures picked up further. Contacts reported record-high demand, as well as wage increases, for engineers with experience in cloud computing. Contacts also noted that technology and non-technology sectors are increasingly competing for workers with the same advanced skills. In the financial services sector, wages for unskilled entry-level positions increased markedly. Labor shortages in the construction industry persisted, driving up wages for skilled workers. Demand for labor in the agriculture industry continued to outpace supply, putting upward pressure on wages. One contact noted that growers continue to automate production where possible. Contacts in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry reported relocating workers and operations to lower-cost locales outside of the District.

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Google Makes Nevada Land Grab for Data Center

Once known for casinos and brothels, Reno is now attracting corporations drawn by its low costs, lenient permitting rules and relative proximity to Silicon Valley. Other big corporations that have recently built data centers, factories and distribution centers at the industrial park include Apple Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and eBay Inc.

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Call center operator to lay off 135 in North Highlands office

A Pennsylvania call center operator plans to lay off 135 nonunion workers at its office in North Highlands. In mid-2012, ACT announced the opening of the North Highlands calls center, with an initial 500 employees and announced expectations of filling as many as 2,000 jobs.

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