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Yet, demographics does not offer a full explanation. Anyone who works with job seekers throughout California today knows that workers in their mid-50s and over are retiring in part because of the difficulty more and more are encountering in finding employment. . . Further, demographics does not explain Thornberg’s third factor, the increased disability and other benefit rolls. As noted in these pages over the past few years, the disability rolls have skyrocketed in size since the early 2000s, especially Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). SSDI was at nearly 8.9 million workers on its rolls in December 2015, up from 6.5 million in 2005. And once on SSDI few exit for work.

It is an article of faith among California’s political class that insufficient higher educational opportunities are a constraint on California’s economic and job growth.  . . Unfortunately, the facts disagree with the faith. California is educating far more people than it is creating jobs for them to take. In the past 10 years, California’s public higher education system alone issued 2,455,421 degrees. Over the same period, the state saw a net increase of only 1,136,642 jobs.

Consider Tesla Motors, which arguably wouldn’t exist but for environmental regulations. It also benefits from government subsidies of its “green” technology and tax credits for its customers – and loses money anyway. As if the need for such “incentives” weren’t proof enough that no real demand for electric cars exists, the company has been lobbying for tougher Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) standards even as traditional automakers seek relief from the onerous 54.5 mpg 2025 target. Setting aside Tesla’s blatant rent-seeking — a problem in itself — one can only imagine what their engineers might have achieved had the government not crafted a regulatory sandbox to confine their efforts.

The economy and job market in Silicon Valley chalked up an “astounding” year in 2015, but the region’s boom cooled in the final three months as the stock markets weakened, according to a new Silicon Valley Index report released Wednesday. . . However, this year’s report arrived with some hazards in tow. The 2016 Silicon Valley Index warned of a shrinking middle class, fewer jobs available at mid-level wages, rising housing costs and worsening transportation. These problems, the study warned, could imperil the boom.

The California Solar Jobs Census report released Wednesday found that roughly one out of three employees in the solar industry works in California.

But as the ranks of those workers swell, generating billions of dollars in revenue for their parent companies, legal and political disputes about the nature of gig work have proliferated. Lawsuits have challenged the notion that gig workers aren’t entitled to wage guarantees or benefits. A new California bill allowing gig workers to organize mirrors a national debate about whether and how to allow workers to pursue the types of employment benefits attached to traditional jobs.

First, part-time employment is a significant part of employment in California, up to nearly 20% of the California workforce. It grew from 17.7% of the workforce in December 2005 to over 21% in December 2011 during the Great Recession. It has gone down since December 2011, but at December 2015 was well-above pre-Great Recession levels.

Occupational licensing has grown not because consumers demanded it, but because lobbyists recognized a business opportunity where they could use government power to get rich at the public’s expense. . . Consumers end up paying $200 billion in higher costs annually, prospective professionals lose an estimated three million jobs, and millions more Americans find it harder to live where they want due to licensing requirements that vary by state.

In government-burdened California, any break is welcome. And we got it. The outlook for California’s economy improved against the other states, according to the eighth edition of “Rich States, Poor States: ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index,” just out from the American Legislative Exchange Council.

The percentage of people active in the labor force has dropped substantially over the past 15 years. Part of this decline appears to be the result of secular factors like the aging of the workforce. However, the participation rate among people in their prime working years—ages 25 to 54—has also fallen. Recent research suggests this decline among prime-age workers can be attributed in large part to lower participation from among the higher-income half of U.S. households.

The Labor Department’s recent release of biennial job market forecasts shows that the fastest-growing jobs tend to favor workers with more education, workers in jobs dominated by women and workers in urban areas, according to analyses by Jed Kolko, an economist based in San Francisco.

A key measure of U.S. manufacturers’ health suffered its largest annual decline since the recession ended more than six years ago, showing how global headwinds are eroding a onetime pillar of the economy.

The State of California added 22,700 private sector jobs during the month of January, according to the ADP Regional Employment Report . . .

The share of U.S. workers in unions last year was unchanged at 11.1%, according to Labor Department figures released Thursday, a reflection of the labor movement’s struggle to reverse years of stagnation that followed decades of declines. . . Membership in the private sector rose slightly to 6.7% from 6.6% in 2014 as unions added 195,000 more members there. The public sector had 23,000 more unionized workers in 2015 than it did the year before, but the membership rate fell to 35.2% from 35.7% over that period due to a larger increase in nonunion government workers.

The union membership rate–the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of unions–was 11.1 percent in 2015, unchanged from 2014, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions, at 14.8 million in 2015, was little different from 2014. . . Public-sector workers had a union membership rate (35.2 percent) more than five times higher than that of private-sector workers (6.7 percent).