The number was just about in line with expectations for a 200,000 gain thanks largely to a big gain in service sector jobs. (Tweet this) The group added 192,000 positions, a big gain from the 164,000 the previous month.
PPIC’s newest poll offers a new but familiar glimpse of just how crestfallen Californians seem when it comes to the road ahead. Only 40 percent of likely voters think the state is headed in the right direction, a 9-point decline since March and 4 points lower than all adults who were surveyed this same time in 2014. When the poll is broadened to all adults, it’s more of a split decision; but here, too, PPIC finds a decline in optimism about the direction of California.
For workers, it’s become easier and less risky to go solo. Affordable health insurance plans, which kept many workers shackled to traditional jobs, are more accessible because of the Affordable Care Act. . . In 2013, 23 million people were self-employed, according the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s up 1.2 percent from the year before and up about 24 percent from 2003. That number doesn’t count self-employed people who may also hire employees.
A 2014 Workforce Freedom Initiative report documents that unions up and down the West Coast as well as in Chicago and Milwaukee have gotten minimum wage “escape clauses.”
Growth was characterized as “moderate” in the Chicago, Richmond, Minneapolis and San Francisco districts; “modest” in New York, Philadelphia and St. Louis regions; mixed in the Boston district; “slight” in Cleveland and Kansas City; holding steady in Atlanta; and slowing “slightly” in Dallas. The latter could be associated with falling business spending in the energy sector.
The gap shrank by 19.2 percent to $40.9 billion from the prior month’s $50.6 billion that was the widest in more than six years, Commerce Department figures showed Wednesday in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 72 economists called for a deficit of $44 billion. Purchases of foreign-made goods declined after the end of a labor dispute at West Coast ports caused them to jump in March.
Global deflationary pressures emanating from China are symptomatic of wider demand issues gripping economies from South America and Europe to much of Asia. China is far from the sole cause of price weakness; others include new crude-oil supplies in North America and sluggish growth in Europe. But China’s sheer size, reach and central role in global manufacturing make it a potent force.
Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla, D-Concord, authored AB 706 to establish a California STEM AmeriCorps or CalSTEM program, that would expand on President Barack Obama’s STEM AmeriCorps initiative by allowing the California Volunteers office to administer it and solicit private funds to operate it. The bill, which was approved by the Assembly on Monday, would also allow nonprofits to apply to host CalSTEM AmeriCorps members and defines their qualifications.
The proposal by the Los Angeles Democrat allows the labor commissioner to file a lien on an employer’s property.
As labor unions lead a nationwide push for a higher minimum wage, the California Senate on Monday approved raising the state’s required hourly rate to $11 in 2016 and $13 in 2017.
U.S. consumer spending unexpectedly stalled in April as households cut back on purchases of automobiles and continued to boost savings, suggesting the economy was struggling to gain momentum early in the second quarter.
Elon Musk says his companies don’t need the estimated $4.9 billion they enjoy in government support, but the money will help them move faster to transform the dirty business of energy.
Working at home, much of it telecommuting, has replaced transit as the principal commuting alternative to the automobile in the United States outside New York. In the balance of the nation, there are more than 1.25 commuters who work at home for each commuter using transit to travel to work, according to data in the American Community Survey for 2013 (one year). When the other six largest transit metropolitan areas are included (Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, Boston and San Francisco), twice as many people commute by working at home than by transit.
A new forecast shows the California economy will maintain strong growth despite the drought and a “soft” U.S. economy.
The revision, which was near economists’ latest estimate of a 1% contraction, showed how the world’s largest economy remains vulnerable to shocks as it struggles to regain its vigor. The dip, expected to be short-lived, marked the third quarterly contraction since the economy emerged from recession in mid-2009.