California faces a shortage of highly educated workers. Specifically, economic projections to 2030 show that about two in five jobs will require at least a bachelor’s degree, while demographic projections suggest that only about one in three Californians will attain this level of education. This shortfall equates to 1.1 million workers. To close the gap, […]
For every job opening in America, there’s now barely more than one unemployed person available to take it. The number of job openings in the U.S. has touched another record high while the number of Americans readily available to fill those roles trends lower, according to Labor Department data released Friday.
Tech companies are feeling the weight of rising costs in cities like San Francisco and New York City. More and more people are leaving the coasts in favor of opportunities in less expensive areas. Meanwhile, many cities across middle America are experiencing huge economic booms alongside still-recovering real estate markets, making them attractive to startups […]
Job openings in the U.S. surged to a record 6.3 million, according to the most recent count from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of new positions surged by 645,000 as of the end of January, a new high for the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. The metric gets close attention from Federal […]
California’s unemployment rate fell to 4.3 percent in February as the state’s employers added 14,000 nonfarm payroll jobs. The state Employment Development Department said Friday that the figure is a new record low. The unemployment rate was 4.4 percent in January and 5.1 percent in February 2017.
The tax code provides subsidies for employers to hire ex-felons, to promote employment among low-income workers, and to encourage economic opportunity in distressed areas. These incentives are motivated to different degrees by a belief that economic opportunity facilitates successful reintegration of ex-felons and deters entry into crime. In this paper, we offer a more comprehensive […]
The first fully autonomous ground vehicles hitting the market aren’t cars or delivery trucks—they’re robo-farmhands. The Dot Power Platform is a prime example of an explosion in advanced agricultural technology, which Goldman Sachs predicts will raise crop yields 70 percent by 2050. But Dot isn’t just a tractor that can drive without a human for […]
Ban-the-box (BTB) laws, which prevent employers from asking prospective employees about their criminal histories at initial job screenings, have been adopted by 25 states and the District of Columbia. Using data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System, the Uniform Crime Reports, and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, this study is the first to […]
This paper, made possible by support from the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), describes the work of the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) to develop estimates towards the construction of a new digital economy satellite account. These estimates are the first step to a comprehensive measure of the contribution of the digital […]
Students, parents, and lawmakers often express concern about tuition increases at California’s public universities. But tuition is not the only college cost that has been rising. Students also pay fees that cover many non-instructional costs, and between 2013 and 2016, student fees increased an average of 21% at both the UC and CSU systems, even […]
Black labor-force participation—meaning the number of people working or looking for work—is trending up, while broader participation in the U.S., particularly among whites, has flattened after falling. Participation by race is now near a crossroad. The share of black Americans actively working or looking for work was 62.9% in February, while the corresponding white rate […]
The U.S. job market is booming and workers’ paychecks are growing thanks to a tax cut and raises. But Americans hunkered down on spending last month, a puzzle for an economy that leans heavily on their willingness to consume. Sales at U.S. retailers fell 0.1% in February, marking a three-month slide. Much of the decline […]
A survey of business executives in highly sought after industries such as clean tech and research & development conclude that California has a number of problems that prevent businesses from locating or expanding in the state. The Pacific Research Institute survey discovered that housing and real estate costs, a poor quality education system, and taxes […]
In less than three months, Pasadena’s minimum wage will climb to $12 an hour for those with 25 or fewer employees, and $13.25 for those with 26 or more. Those are higher than California’s current state minimum wage, which is also climbing and will hit $15 by 2022. In some respects, automation like Flippy is […]
California today is frequently held up as a progressive model for the rest of the United States. In 2011, California had a $27 billion budget deficit. Today, it has a $19 billion budget surplus. In 2012, Californians voted to raise income taxes, particularly on the wealthy, to increase funding for under-performing schools. The state is […]