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So far this decade, California has defied economic logic, largely due to the explosive growth of Silicon Valley, as well as the effects of rapid real estate appreciation. Yet, these gains have failed to reverse, and in some ways have even exacerbated, the state’s highest-in-the-nation poverty rate, growing inequality and a mounting outmigration of middle-class families. These facts suggest that it’s time to end the celebration and start focusing on how create a more expansive, less feudal California.

(Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco) Employment and Wages On balance, the labor market tightened further, and contacts reported continued moderate wage gains. In the technology, financial services, and health-care sectors, demand for skilled information technology (IT) labor remained strong, pushing up wages for those workers. Contacts in the hotel industry noted widespread strong upward wage pressure for all positions, with one contact reporting plans to raise workers’ wages.

Recent changes in immigration policy created substantial labor supply shortages for low-skilled workers in the agriculture sector; as a consequence, some growers discarded portions of their harvest. Several contacts observed that applicants for some low-skilled positions did not meet the minimum job requirements or were unable to pass pre-employment screenings such as drug tests. 

Amazon.com today announced plans to open a fulfillment center in Fresno that will employ up to 2,500 people.

The 855,000 square-foot facility will be located in a burgeoning business zone at Orange and Central avenues — about 1,000 acres that is being primed for e-commerce and data center jobs, said Mayor Lee Brand in an interview. Brand said there has been a lot of behind-the-scenes work getting the $100 million project permitted, and he expects a groundbreaking within 30 days, and about one year to build the center — putting an opening in the second half of 2018.

But top economists now are pointing to another explanation. Women seem to be leaving the workforce for some of the same reasons men are: Middle-class jobs are in short supply and working at the bottom pays less than it used to. Single women without children drove most of the downturn in women’s workforce participation from 1999 through 2007, according to a study by Professor Robert Moffitt of Johns Hopkins University. Those women don’t have to care for a child and they aren’t counting on a partner to provide for them. They are, Moffitt said, “the same as a lot of men … even though it sounds a little strange to make that analogy.” They’re also staring down the same long odds as men who lost their footing in an economy in which low-skill jobs that pay well have all been shipped abroad or obliterated by technology.

A new economic forecast from the Center for Business and Policy Research at the University of the Pacific shows the economy continues to grow despite an uncertain policy environment. But California should expect slower growth compared to recent years. Non-farm payroll jobs are expected to increase 1.5 percent over the next year, half the pace of the previous four years.

A decline in the confidence of Los Angeles County consumers continues–raising concern about where the local economy is heading, since consumer spending accounts for about 70% of economic activity in our communities.

According to the index recently released by the Lowe Institute of Political Economy at Claremont McKenna College, Los Angeles consumer sentiment declined by approximately 2% in the first quarter of 2017, following a sharp 12 % decline in the fourth quarter of 2016.

The U.S. economy isn’t growing very fast these days. Some state economies are, though! The fourth-quarter state gross domestic product data, out Thursday from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, has Texas, Utah, Florida and Washington leading the way, all with annualized real GDP growth of more than 3 percent in the fourth quarter. Also growing at faster than 2.5 percent: the District of Columbia, California, Idaho and Oregon.

A new council would be created to review the necessity of every occupational licensing requirement in Wisconsin under a bill being circulated for co-sponsors.

The measure unveiled Wednesday would require the submission of a report by the end of 2018 that recommends elimination of licenses and other changes rules and requirements. The Legislature in 2019 would then consider approving the recommendations.

GreatSchools released a first-of-its-kind look at student achievement and access to educational opportunity broken down by race and ethnicity. The report sheds light on systemic gaps in access to advantages that allow students to succeed in school and prepare for college and career.

The report shows that a stunning 2% of African American and 6% of Hispanic students attend a quality school for their student group based on multiple factors, compared to 59% of white and 73% of Asian students.

The pace of hiring picked up again in April and the unemployment rate fell to the lowest level in nearly a decade, evidence the U.S. economy is poised for a spring rebound after a lackluster start to the year.

Chinese citizens, companies, and capital have arrived on U.S. soil in force, and they’re making their impact felt across small towns, college campuses, and corporate America. The trend is national, but the epicenter is in California. As the top destination for Chinese investors, students, tourists, and homebuyers, California is the living laboratory for a new paradigm in U.S.-China relations. This new paradigm is built on grassroots ties and face-to-face interactions. I call it Chinafornia.

In the span of a few decades, Los Angeles area construction went from an industry that was two-thirds white, and largely unionized, to one that is overwhelmingly Latino, mostly nonunion and heavily reliant on immigrants, according to a Los Angeles Times review of federal data.

At the same time, the job got less lucrative. American construction workers today make $5 an hour less than they did in the early 1970s, after adjusting for inflation.

During the latest expansion, new establishments have accounted for a little more than 11% of all new private-sector jobs created in the U.S. During the 1990s, the figure was 15%, according to Labor Department data released Wednesday.

That may seem a small shift, but those few percentage points add up to nearly 300,000 jobs a quarter. Separate data from the Commerce Department show the trend goes back even further. The share of private firms less than a year old has dropped from more than 12% during much of the 1980s to only about 8% since 2010.

Tesla’s electric cars feature some of the most cutting-edge technology around, so it’s only fitting that the company’s production line is just as futuristic.

The company’s chief executive, Elon Musk, once said that Tesla’s factory will eventually look like an “”alien dreadnought””, and the latest pictures show it is well on its way.

There will be no people in the production process, but there will be people working in the factory to oversee the robots and make sure everything is running at peak efficiency.

“”You can’t have people in the production line itself, otherwise you drop to people speed,”” said Musk.”

California’s unemployment rate fell to 4.9 percent in March.

The state Employment Development Department said Friday the rate was down from 5 percent in February and 5.6 percent in March 2016.

The department says the state’s employers added 19,300 nonfarm payroll jobs last month.