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Region is on track to greet 50 million visitors a year, and these visitors spent more than $18 billion in our economy this year.  At the same time, the hospitality and tourism industry also serves our 10 million local residents.  Accordingly, the report delineates the two separate components (traded versus local-serving), which are very different in terms of their composition, workforce needs, intermediate purchases and economic impacts — distinctions that have clear implications for how policymakers and stakeholders formulate programs to encourage not only more jobs but also better-paying jobs.

California had more manufacturing businesses (38,741) than any other state in 2012 and their 1.2 million employees were also the largest industrial workforce of any state, the report says. Those workers produced products valued at $512.3 billion, up 4.3 percent from the previous industrial census in 2007.

In this first year, the SVCIP finds that highly productive, talented workers are the undisputed foundation of the region’s strength in innovation and in attracting businesses, despite the region’s high costs. It then identifies the critical public policy issues that need to be addressed to develop, attract and retain talent for the region’s continued success. Those issues include immigration, STEM and early education, housing and transportation. R&D funding, tax policies and the cost of doing business also emerge as issues of strategic concern for the region.

The growing skills gap is one of the most persistent challenges a”ecting thriving and lagging state economies—the disparity between the skills companies need to drive growth and innovation versus the skills that actually exist within their organizations and in the labor market. This disconnect, expected to grow substantially as the boomer generation retires, causes workers and companies to miss out on realizing their full potential. A sizable skills gap impacts virtually every aspect of the economy, thereby affecting our national competitiveness and, in turn, causing the economy to fall short of its potential.

. . . Summit leaders have spent the last few months developing a five-year plan that aims to build on these successes. The Summit’s new Roadmap to Shared Prosperity, scheduled for release in January, integrates the work of the Summit’s seven action teams and once again identifies the “right next steps” the state must take between now and 2020 to advance prosperity—from developing a workforce that can compete in the global economy to making needed infrastructure investments and encouraging the state to find new ways to fund these vital efforts.

Most published research focuses on tax incentives at the state level, where the largest packages are typically awarded. A new nationwide survey by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), though, provides a detailed portrait of how local governments use business incentives and employ accountability measures.

If fully implemented, the annual cost of base tuition and fees for a California resident will jump from $12,192 this academic year to an estimated $15,563 in 2019-20.

The final AMP report makes recommendations addressing three key pillars that support American manufacturing: 1) enabling innovation, 2) securing the talent pipeline, and 3) improving the business climate.

Corporate executives who haven’t considered investing in California for a long time suddenly have new reasons to do so.

Building on the state’s efforts to streamline the permitting process and make it easier to business in the state, the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) today launched a new web page to highlight the best practices of business groups and state and local permitting agencies that are making their programs more user friendly for businesses.

The Golden State sets the gold standard for innovation and access to capital, and its economy is turning around. But “golden” could also describe the state’s costs of living and doing business.

The San Francisco Bay Area is in the midst of a strong recovery from the past decade’s economic downturn. However, the benefits of prosperity are not universally shared. In the Bay Area, more than 1.1 million workers — over a third of the total workforce — earn less than $18 per hour.

About 83 percent of students in the Class of 2016 who took the California High School Exit Exam for the first time this spring passed the English section, while 85 percent passed in math, according to statewide figures released Friday.

Georgia’s success has come from dead reckoning in areas that are crucial to business locators. That includes the state’s welcoming and business-friendly government, to be sure. And employers are enthusiastic about one of the Georgia legislature’s most recent moves: passing significant workers’ compensation reform that cuts costs for business.

The largest manufacturing workforce in the country is based in the Los Angeles, Long Beach and Santa Ana metropolitan area, according to government figures..