News

An Assembly resolution against government contracting is drawing fire from local governments and business groups for what they contend is a pledge against giving work to outside interests.

Personal income increased $47.7 billion, or 0.3 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI) increased $42.3 billion, or 0.3 percent, in February, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $30.8 billion, or 0.3 percent.

For the first time in months, most Californians are shelling out more than $4 for a gallon of regular gasoline. And with the busy summer driving season ahead, prices are likely to move even higher, fuel analysts said.

Women are starting 1,288 (net) new businesses per day, which is double the rate from only three years ago, according to the 2014 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report, commissioned by American Express OPEN. . . Of the 25 most populous metropolitan areas, the cities with the highest combined economic clout for women-owned firms – a measurement averaging the rankings in growth in number, revenues and employment of women-owned businesses from 2002-2014 are: 1. San Antonio, TX . . . 25. San Francisco, CA (tied for twenty-fifth)

Employment prospects for teens and young adults in the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas plummeted between 2000 and 2011. On a number of measures—employment rates, labor force underutilization, unemployment, and year-round joblessness—teens and young adults fared poorly, and sometimes disastrously.

California’s leaders often mock Texas and its Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who has been on an almost evangelical mission to lure California businesses eastward. Earlier this month, Perry visited Los Angeles, Orange County and the San Jose area. He’s been in TV ads pitching Texas to businesses and has boasted that in the last two years California companies created 14,000 jobs in the Lone Star State.

California’s economy added 58,800 net new jobs in February, gaining back some momentum after a lackluster showing the month before, the state’s Employment Development Department reported Friday.

The state of California will implement a strategy to expand international trade and foreign investment that will create jobs, increase revenues for California enterprises, and improve California’s international competitiveness; and which is also in concert with protecting the environment and promoting sustainable development.

In a sobering new study, three Princeton economists found that only 11% of the long-term unemployed in any given month found full-time work a year later. 

The Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization showcased nine companies at an annual luncheon Wednesday whose expansions or moving to the region will create 1,485 new jobs.

These Golden State companies, which number 60 in all, have expanded, relocated or moved jobs to Texas, Perry said. Eleven of the businesses have relocated their headquarters to the Lone Star State, including longtime Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum.

Teens and young adults traditionally have struggled much more to find work than their older counterparts. But a new Brookings Institution report shows the road to employment for young job seekers nationwide and here in Sacramento during the 2000s has been especially rocky.

Regardless of the most recent data point, California’s job performance has been better than expected, and we should all be thankful for that.  However, comparison with the United States average is not the only metric.  Comparison with California’s potential is the correct metric, and there California is underperforming in a big way.  Given all of its advantages, California should be leading the nation in job creation and opportunity.

California’s economy is recovering from its worst recession since the Great Depression – no doubt about that.

But its recovery is very slow, very geographically and socioeconomically uneven, and exacerbates the decline of a once-vibrant middle class and the evolution of a distinctly two-tiered society.

This study presents detailed state-by-state estimates of the state and local taxes paid by businesses for FY2012. It is the 11th annual report prepared by EY in conjunction with the Council On State Taxation (COST).