News

The bank reported that 67 percent of Fresno County business owners who participated in its annual Small Business Economic Survey are planning to relocate outside of California.

San Francisco may have cool startups and some of the biggest names in the technology business, but when compared with 11 other global cities with strong tech clusters, the city that is home to Silicon Valley under-performs in key metrics like business environment, quality of life and property prices, according to a new report by property consultants Savills .

While progress in the national and state economies has boosted confidence, optimism on the part of both consumers and businesses is still tempered by caution. Following a 2.2% increase in 2014, nonfarm jobs are expected to increase by 2.2% again in 2015, slowing slightly to 2.1% in 2016. The unemployment rate will fall from 7.5% in 2014 to 6.7% this year and 6.3% in 2016. With continued improvement in the labor market, both personal income and total taxable sales should increase by four percent this year, accelerating to six percent in 2016.

Wholesale gas prices rose 6 to 10 cents in California after a large explosion at the Exxon Mobil refinery in Torrance injured four workers and shut down a portion of the plant..

Administration officials have estimated $1.7 billion in revenue from the fees by June 30, 2016, the end of the state’s next fiscal year. But legislative analysts say the state could rake in between $3.3 billion and $7.7 billion in that period.

Los Angeles County should add a total of 150,000 payroll jobs over the course of this year and next, bringing employment to record levels, according to the forecast from the LAEDC’s Kyser Center for Economic Research. What’s more, the unemployment rate should dip to 6.6 percent by the end of next year, its lowest level in eight years.

At issue are California’s rigid overtime rules, which require companies to pay hourly employees time-and-one-half not only for time worked in excess of 40 hours a week — but for time worked beyond eight hours each day. As the state’s Division of Labor Standards Enforcement declares, “Eight hours of work constitutes a day’s work … .” But what works in the view of a Sacramento bureaucracy isn’t necessarily what works for others.

U.S. inflation gauges are sliding toward negative territory for the first time in more than five years. But the oil-fueled tumble in prices is far from the kind of growth-sapping episodes of deflation that tend to worry economists.

No question, inequality is extremely high from a historical perspective – worrisomely so. But a new analysis, by Stephen J. Rose of George Washington University, adds an important wrinkle to the story: Income inequality has not actually risen since the financial crisis began.

As employers at the ports along the West Coast on Monday refused to unload ships for the sixth day out of the past 10, their nine-month contract dispute with port workers is becoming a significant business problem.

Gov. Jerry Brown pleads with companies to stay in California, and scolds those that are leaving. He, too, recognizes the storm clouds over his state’s business climate. “We’ve got a few problems,” he conceded to an interviewer not long ago. “We have lots of little burdens and regulations and taxes.” But neither he nor the state legislature have plans to do anything about it. Until they do, only the brave, if not foolish, set up a business in California.

“What’s really making California prices jump more than the rest of the nation is our strict environmental standards,” she said. “Our refineries are converting from their winter blend to the summer blend of gas a little earlier than the rest of the country and they are under maintenance for the turnaround.”

About one-fifth of the city’s water pipes were installed before 1931 and nearly all will reach the end of their useful lives in the next 15 years. They are responsible for close to half of all water main leaks, and replacing them is a looming, $1-billion problem for the city.

The other 49 states follow a more lenient federal law that permits some outsourcing as long as “virtually all” of the product is of U.S. origin, according to a Federal Trade Commission advisory.

Atkins’ colleagues from San Diego to Sacramento said last week they share her worry over how to pay for the state’s aging and overburdened roads, bridges and highways. But they also said her idea could be in for a long, difficult ride in the Legislature given the public’s disdain for new fees and the lack of a clear connection between state government and the potholes on local parkways.