California drivers pay a staggering $44 billion a year in extra car costs because of traffic jams that seemingly grow worse by the day, spreading potholes and outdated roads and bridges, according to a national highway advocacy group.
The third-quarter report, released Thursday, predicts that the state unemployment rate will sink to 5.7% by the end of 2016 from 7.4% now. That would continue to top the national rate, which UCLA economists expect will fall to 5.3% from its current 6.1%.
Gov. Jerry Brown will soon sign California’s ban on single use plastic grocery bags. Nothing better represents the de-industrialization of this state; the aversion of California’s elites to the manufacture of products they don’t like even if they are a convenience provided free to consumers.
In 2013, exports of goods and services directly and indirectly supported an estimated 11.3 million U.S. jobs. Goods exports which consist of manufactured products, agricultural products, natural resources, and used/ second hand products supported 7.1 million jobs while the export of services accounted for the remaining 4.2 million jobs supported nationally.
While the outlook for California’s jobseekers is considerably better than in recent years, substantial challenges remain. Unemployment remains high in many regions across the state, and persistent weakness in the public sector job market is undermining the overall strength of the economic recovery. Moreover, the current extended period of economic growth follows decades of wage stagnation and Great Recession will not be suffi cient to ensure broad-based economic growth that reaches workers across the wage distribution.
U.S. job growth slowed to its lowest level of the year in August, a stumble for labor markets that had delivered a string of steady gains over the prior six months despite uneven economic growth. . . Revisions to earlier estimates for June and July showed that the economy added 28,000 fewer jobs than initially reported.
NV Energy is now offering a pilot program that provides a discount on electric rates for new businesses that locate in the state of Nevada. The program, created by legislation and approved by the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada, provides for a total of 50 MW of power to be allocated to new business statewide.
By some estimates, thousands of California construction workers are left to toil in the shadows, exploited by contractors who use an illegal scheme to save money and avoid paying employment taxes and workers compensation.
California is home to the busiest port complex in the country and the largest manufacturing center, but where exports are concerned, it’s neither the heaviest mover nor the top employer..
A report released Wednesday by researchers at USC found that immigrants who are in California illegally make up nearly 10% of the state’s workforce and contribute $130 billion annually to its gross domestic product..
With each day, it seems, another accident illustrates the cost of deferred maintenance on public works, while offering a frustrating reminder to this cash-strained municipality of the daunting task it faces in dealing with the estimated $8.1 billion it would take to do the necessary repairs. The city’s total annual budget is about $26 billion.
California is seen as fertile ground for a new labor movement. The state is home to the largest number of union members in the nation – some 2.4 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Union organizers have used the state to test new recruiting strategies; but success has been limited. . . Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education, says there are more organizing campaigns here than anywhere else in the country.
It’s not just pro-business Texas anymore, or Utah or Nevada or Arizona. Now even New York, a state sometimes ranked as a worse place to do business than even California, is going after Golden State businesses and jobs.
Averaging California’s economy masks some deep-seated problems – including the nation’s highest poverty rate – that shouldn’t be ignored in the political rush to proclaim a “comeback.”
California would be particularly affected because much of the state does not meet the current, weaker standard for ozone that has been in place since 2008. . . “We’re going to need to have zero or near-zero emissions across the entire economy, from transportation to businesses, to residences and personal products,” said Sam Atwood, a spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which includes Los Angeles and Orange counties.