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“Take the fast food industry, for example, an industry that virtually every economic and social policy of the contemporary progressive movement is trying to maim. From the $15-an-hour minimum wage in the industry demanded by New York to the fight against fast food on nutritional grounds by the Broccoli Police and the Nutrition Nannies, to this new NLRB ruling mandating that the employees of franchises be considered for certain regulatory purposes employees of the parent companies, the progressive movement is trying to do to McDonalds and related companies what Bill deBlasio and the taxi lobby want to do to Uber. The net effect of these changes will be to narrow the choices of food that poor people have, to raise the price of the food they have to buy, and to accelerate the automation of the restaurant industry, further reducing the already limited number of jobs open to people with few skills. Progressives will look on the consequences of this disaster and conclude that with urban unemployment higher and the cost of living for the poor rising, we obviously need more food stamps and rent subsidies—and so we must impose heavier taxes on the companies and industries that are still profitable in order to pay for these necessary benefits.”

“California jobs will grow at a healthy rate this year, but at a slower pace over the next two years, according to a new forecast by UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.”

“Housing in California — already considered unaffordable to many — will become even less affordable over the next two years, with construction unable to keep up with demand, according to a UCLA economic forecast released Monday.”

“The forecast for the national economy for the next two years is a healthy one, a slim chance of a recession and a slight chance of a surge in growth. In California, the forecast remains largely unchanged since June. Growth in employment in California will continue, albeit it at a slower pace by 2017, as the unemployment rate falls to about 4.8 percent, similar to that of the nation as a whole.”

The most important step our schools can take to help close the achievement gap, ready our students for college, and prepare our students for work in the 21st century, is to ensure that all students have equal access to effective teachers. These statutes operate counter to that goal by elevating seniority over the ability to improve student achievement, and undermining our schools’ ability to impose quality controls on their staff. Such quality controls are necessary for ensuring that all students have equal access to the sorts of teachers that are capable of teaching the 21st century skills students deserve to learn and need to succeed.

The average annual cost of an employer family plan rose 4%, to $17,545, from $16,834 last year, according to the annual poll of employers performed by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation along with the Health Research & Educational Trust, a nonprofit affiliated with the American Hospital Association. The share of the 2015 family-plan premium borne by employees was 29% of the total, the same percentage as last year.

The U.S. construction industry has lost more than half a million Mexican-born workers since 2007, contributing to a labor shortage that’s likely to drive up home prices, according to a new analysis.

L.A. Unified already has the largest charter school program in the country, representing about 16% of total enrollment. But getting to 50% would mean creating 260 charter schools that would provide 130,000 seats, the report said. 

The California unemployment rate fell to 6.1% in August from 6.2% the previous month — the lowest level since January 2008 — while employers added a healthy 36,200 net new jobs.

Applications for unemployment benefits decreased by 11,000 to 264,000 in the week ended Sept. 12, a Labor Department report showed Thursday in Washington. The survey period included the Labor Day holiday. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg projected claims would hold at 275,000.

California will have more than 1.4 million STEM jobs by 2022, having gained 200,000 in employment, more than any other state. Other large increases in the nation during this period include Texas at 160,000 STEM jobs, and Florida, Illinois, and Virginia at between 40,000 to 60,000 jobs each.

in the delivery of specialized services such as technical consulting. In California, 775,000 jobs were supported by goods-related exports and 85 percent of these jobs were in manufacturing.

The lack of change shows that the progress in the U.S. job market—in 2014 the economy added 2.6 million jobs, the most in more than a decade—have remained insufficient to lift the fortunes of the nearly 47 million people living in poverty.

Current law entitles workers at companies with at least 50 employees to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a sick parent, child or spouse. Senate Bill 406, by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, would add siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, domestic partners and parents-in-law to the list of family members.

Mr. Flores notes that the Democrat-dominated legislature in Sacramento has made a point of spending big on schools with a high concentration of disadvantaged students, with little to show for it. “You could throw millions of dollars into these schools,” he says, “and if there is no accountability, you have the same situation.”