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While the outlook for California’s jobseekers is considerably better than in recent years, substantial challenges remain. Unemployment remains high in many regions across the state, and persistent weakness in the public sector job market is undermining the overall strength of the economic recovery. Moreover, the current extended period of economic growth follows decades of wage stagnation and Great Recession will not be suffi cient to ensure broad-based economic growth that reaches workers across the wage distribution.

U.S. job growth slowed to its lowest level of the year in August, a stumble for labor markets that had delivered a string of steady gains over the prior six months despite uneven economic growth. . . Revisions to earlier estimates for June and July showed that the economy added 28,000 fewer jobs than initially reported.

California is home to the busiest port complex in the country and the largest manufacturing center, but where exports are concerned, it’s neither the heaviest mover nor the top employer..

A report released Wednesday by researchers at USC found that immigrants who are in California illegally make up nearly 10% of the state’s workforce and contribute $130 billion annually to its gross domestic product..

The largest manufacturing workforce in the country is based in the Los Angeles, Long Beach and Santa Ana metropolitan area, according to government figures..

California is seen as fertile ground for a new labor movement. The state is home to the largest number of union members in the nation – some 2.4 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Union organizers have used the state to test new recruiting strategies; but success has been limited. . . Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education, says there are more organizing campaigns here than anywhere else in the country.

Averaging California’s economy masks some deep-seated problems – including the nation’s highest poverty rate – that shouldn’t be ignored in the political rush to proclaim a “comeback.”

Construction in California is a $152-billion industry, one in which so-called gray employment has surged 400% since 1972. The upswing has been especially pronounced since the most recent recession because only two-thirds of the formal construction jobs that disappeared have since returned.

In July 2014, among metropolitan areas for which estimates are available, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, California, had the highest employment in manufacturing (510,900). In contrast, Fairbanks, Alaska, Laredo, Texas, and Punta Gorda, Florida, each had 700 workers employed in manufacturing.

California would be particularly affected because much of the state does not meet the current, weaker standard for ozone that has been in place since 2008. . . “We’re going to need to have zero or near-zero emissions across the entire economy, from transportation to businesses, to residences and personal products,” said Sam Atwood, a spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which includes Los Angeles and Orange counties.

A decade ago, nearly 4,000 apparel-making sites operated in Los Angeles County, according to government figures. Fewer than 2,200 remain. Employment has plunged from 90,200 in 1990 to 46,000 last year.

California’s beer industry provides a nation-leading 242,000 jobs, according to a new study released by the Beer Institute, the Washington, D.C.-based national trade association.

Amazon is hiring for 200 more permanent jobs in its Tracy distribution center, according to KCRA-TV Channel 3.

This report details how these nine Summit proposals are the foundation for rebuilding California’s struggling middle class and restoring upward mobility. It also highlights a wealth of opportunities for the Summit’s seven action teams to engage and collaborate to make them a reality.

California added more than 27,000 jobs in July, but the state unemployment rate remained flat at 7.4% as the size of the labor force shrank slightly from last month’s estimates..