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A tightening labor market might finally be producing pay raises for American workers, delivering one of the key missing ingredients in the expansion.

San Rafael-based software company Autodesk said in an earnings statement Tuesday that it will cut 13 percent, or nearly 1,200 jobs, in a restructuring. An Autodesk spokesperson declined to give details on where those job cuts would be and said the company had no comment beyond what was in the earnings statement, which was released after the stock market closed. Shares of Autodesk fell more than 12 percent in after-hours trading. Autodesk employs some 9,000 people in its offices globally, including a combined 2,000 at its San Rafael headquarters and a San Francisco office.

Though the labor market has grown robustly nationwide this year, progress has been uneven across blue states and red states. An increasing number of people in red states have stopped looking for work, while a larger share of people in blue states are actively in the workforce.

Millions of Americans are shut out of jobs they could do because of occupational licensing laws. They have the ability and desire, but can’t overcome the high cost of getting the governmental license that’s required before they can legally work in a job field.

Statewide unemployment also fell sharply in November, to 4.6 percent from 4.9 percent a month earlier. The 4.6 percent statewide rate is the lowest since 1976, according to data compiled by economist Sung Won Sohn of CSU Channel Islands. The EDD said California employers added 47,400 workers to their payrolls last month. Although much of the job growth in November was seasonal, as employers geared up for the holidays, the new numbers also dovetail with other signs that the economy has been continuing to perk along in recent months.

The economists’ preferred model shows that past minimum wage increases in California have caused a measurable decrease in employment among affected employees. Specifically, they find that a 10% increase in the minimum wage would cause a nearly five-percent reduction in employment in an industry where one-half of workers earn wages close to the minimum. In an industry with an average share of lower-wage workers, their findings imply that each 10% increase in California’s minimum wage has reduced employment for affected employees by two percent.

Unemployment rates dropped to record lows in Alabama, California, Hawaii, Mississippi and Texas in November. The Labor Department’s report on state unemployment showed rates fell in 19 other states, a positive sign for U.S. economic growth. Over the past 12 months, 27 states have added payroll jobs – with largest absolute gains in Texas, where the number of jobs climbed 330,600. California was second in job additions with 288,300. Job totals have essentially been unchanged in 23 other states. Hawaii reported the lowest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate at 2 percent. The unemployment rate was below 2.7 percent in Nebraska, New Hampshire and North Dakota. In total, 17 states have unemployment rates below this national average of 4.1 percent.

Unfortunately for Governor Brown, the recession he fears may already have arrived in California. The following chart showing the trailing twelve month averages of California’s civilian labor force and number of employed is one that we’ve adapted from a different project to show that data in the context of the state’s higher-than-federal minimum wage increases and periods of negative GDP growth for the national economy. It shows that in 2017, the size of the state’s labor force has peaked and begun to decline in 2017, while the number of employed shows very slow to stagnant growth during the year.

Several major companies, perhaps eager to boost public opinion for the tax overhaul that dramatically slashed their taxes, said Wednesday that they will boost employee pay and bonuses in the wake of federal tax law changes.

Employers are spending more on vacation perks and retirement contributions, helping to propel overall compensation package growth to its fastest pace in two years. Private-sector workers’ average hourly compensation, including both pay and benefits, advanced 4% from a year earlier in the third quarter, according to new Labor Department data. It’s the best gain in total compensation since the same quarter in 2015.

The economy appears to be on its firmest footing in at least a decade, with hiring picking up from earlier this year and the unemployment rate holding at a 17-year low in November.

About one-quarter of California’s school districts don’t make the grade in serving students — either in achievement or other areas assessed under the state’s new school report cards. Oakland, Hayward, Antioch, Mount Diablo and Pittsburg unified school districts and East Side Union High in San Jose are among the 228 poorest performers in the state. Most of those districts fail to meet benchmarks for one or two groups of students, particularly, with those who have disabilities. In East Side, for example, the district fell short in that category as well as with homeless and foster youth students.

When the latest jobs report comes out Friday, look beyond the top-line number. For months now economists have suggested that the low unemployment rate—4.1% as of last month’s report—implies that America is at or near full employment. Yet the labor market is still below its prerecession peak, with about two million jobs missing. Many of those workers have joined the disability rolls. Others have simply dropped out of the workforce in favor of leisure time.

California’s economic engine has slowed somewhat in 2017 and that’s expected to continue in coming years as employers have trouble finding workers in the expensive state, according to a new report.

The latest UCLA Anderson Forecast, released Wednesday, calls for job growth of 1.8% by year’s end, 1.6% in 2018 and 1.2% in 2019. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, economist and forecast director Jerry Nickelsburg said.

One out of every seven students in the Los Angeles Unified School District — more than 80,000 kids — missed more than three weeks of classes, according to a report from an attendance task force presented to the district’s school board Tuesday.

Missing that amount of school is enough to put a student’s education at risk: Students who are “chronically absent,” which many researchers define as missing at least 15 school days in a year, are more likely to drop out once they reach high school. Roughly another 100,000 L.A. Unified students who missed between eight and 14 days of school last year are also at increased risk.