This report details how these nine Summit proposals are the foundation for rebuilding California’s struggling middle class and restoring upward mobility. It also highlights a wealth of opportunities for the Summit’s seven action teams to engage and collaborate to make them a reality.
This spring, payroll employment in the US reached an all-time high, finally surpassing the pre-recession peak of 138.4 million jobs in the first quarter of 2008. At that time many said that the 8.7 million jobs lost in the Great Recession had at last been re-gained. However, they are not the same jobs that were lost, nor will unemployment have returned to a level less than the 5% of 2008. Much press reporting during this long economic recovery has expressed worry that low wage jobs dominate the labor market rebound, that the middle income household has not advanced economically, and that most of the income gains of the US have gone to those with high incomes, skewing the distribution of income in the US towards the wealthy or high-income earners.
California added more than 27,000 jobs in July, but the state unemployment rate remained flat at 7.4% as the size of the labor force shrank slightly from last month’s estimates..
Nowhere is that trend more pronounced than in Silicon Valley where the economic divide is widening between highly educated and skilled high-tech workers and low-paid workers who are trying to piece together a living in one of the country’s most expensive places.
Developing more startup companies based on UC Davis inventions has been a goal of Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi since she took over at Davis in 2009.
California has experienced rapid population growth for most of its history, but that trend has come to an end. California’s population grew by 2.9 percent over the last three years, only slightly above the nation’s 2.4 percent increase. Over the last few decades, millions of Californians have left the Golden State for opportunities elsewhere.
The U.S. economy earlier this year recovered all the jobs lost during the recession, but those new jobs pay an average of 23% less than the ones lost in the downturn, according to an analysis released Monday by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
The study (PDF), prepared by the economic consulting company IHS Global Insight (IHS), also compares which metro areas have the most households in the top, bottom, and middle thirds of the country’s income distribution. The areas with the fewest middle-income households are mostly coastal: Out of the 357 metro areas, San Jose has the lowest percentage of households making more than $35,000 and less than $75,000, followed by the areas around Bridgeport, Conn.; Washington, D.C.; San Francisco and Oakland; Boston; and New York. The Washington-Arlington-Alexandria and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro areas have the highest percentage of households making more than $75,000 and the lowest percentage making less than $35,000.
The governing board of the Workers Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau, comprised mostly of insurance industry representatives, voted to file an advisory rate of $2.86 per $100 of payroll, 11 percent more than the industry’s premium average as of July 1.
California businesses on average have 19 percent higher operating costs per job than businesses in the rest of the country, according to a study released by the California Foundation for Commerce and Education. Business operating costs in California are on average 16% higher than for firms in large industrial states, and are 10% higher than the average of Western states.
The U.S. economy earlier this year recovered all the jobs lost during the recession, but those new jobs pay an average of 23% less than the ones lost in the downturn, according to an analysis released Monday by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
The topic of income inequality and its effects has been the subject of countless analysis stretching back generations and crossing geopolitical boundaries. Despite the tendency to speak about this issue in moral terms, the central questions are economic ones: Would the U.S. economy be better off with a narrower income gap? And, if an unequal distribution of income hinders growth, which solutions could do more harm than good, and which could make the economic pie bigger for all?
In its new Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households, the Federal Reserve Board provides a snapshot of the self-perceived financial and economic well-being of U.S. households and the issues they face, based on responses to the Board’s 2013 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking. The report provides insight into numerous topics of current relevance to household finances, including: housing and living arrangements; credit access and behavior; education and student loan debt; savings; retirement; and health expenses.
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.
But today, after decades of expanding property ownership, the middle orders—what might be seen as the inheritors of Jefferson’s yeoman class—now appear in a secular retreat. Homeownership, which peaked in 2002 at nearly 70 percent, has dropped, according to the U.S. Census, to 65 percent in 2013, the lowest in almost two decade. Although some of this may be seen as a correction for the abuses of the housing bubble, rising costs, stagnant incomes and a drop off of younger first time buyers suggest that ownership may continue to fall in years ahead.