News

Economic activity in the Twelfth District continued to improve moderately during the reporting period of mid-May through June. Overall price inflation remained quite modest, and wage pressures were well contained on net. Most contacts indicated that retail sales growth was unchanged from the previous Beige Book. Demand for business and consumer services ticked up. Manufacturing activity improved. Drought conditions contributed to reduced production of some fruits, vegetables, and livestock products. Activity in real estate markets advanced, although growth in the residential sector slowed somewhat. Loan demand increased overall.

The Lone Star State also had the highest total number of searchers from outside the state. Data gathered by Indeed.com’s research institute shows that people in California, Florida, Illinois, New York and Louisiana are all actively looking for jobs in Texas, with people in California and New York searching the most.

The output of state factories has surged 73% during the last 15 years — twice as fast as the rest of the nation — even as the sector bleeds jobs, according to a new report from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. Employment declined nearly 34% during the same period.

Most people will have the impression that the 288,000 jobs created last month were full-time. Not so. . . Full-time jobs last month plunged by 523,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. What has increased are part-time jobs. They soared by about 800,000 to more than 28 million. Just think of all those Americans working part time, no doubt glad to have the work but also contending with lower pay, diminished benefits and little job security.

On average, California’s economic growth will be far below its potential. In most of the state it will be disappointingly low to dismal, as California’s economy is held back by well-meaning but seriously flawed regulations. At the same time, a few super-performing cities may see spectacular growth, at least for a few years.

What if they gave a recovery, and the middle class were never invited? Well, that’s an experiment we are running now, and, even with the recent strengthening of the jobs market, it’s not looking very good.

Today, we have some new extremes. Some of our coastal communities are as wealthy as any in the world. At the other extreme, we have some of America’s poorest communities. San Bernardino, for example, has America’s second-highest poverty rate for cities with population over 200,000.

To be sure, low-tax states such as Texas generally score well, while high-tax states such as California and Illinois flunk their tests. This may be because the kind of politicians who like high taxes also like bossing people around. But not always. Minnesota, a high-tax state, earns a respectable “B” for business climate, partly because it is easy to start a business there. Washington and Florida, both low-tax states, earn a “C” and a “C+”. Entrepreneurs fault Washington’s harsh zoning laws and gripe that in Florida new firms must jump through hoops like dolphins at SeaWorld.

U.S. employers added jobs at a robust clip in June and the unemployment rate fell, signs of labor-market strength as the economic recovery heads into its sixth year.

Nonfarm employment advanced at a seasonally adjusted 288,000 last month, the Labor Department said Thursday. The combined gains for the prior two months were revised up 29,000. April’s 304,000 increase was the strongest since January 2012.

California was one of the states that has managed to regain all of its jobs — barely. Its job growth from January 2008 to May 2014 was 0.4%, sitting in the middle of the pack compared to other states.

Why has the labor market contracted so much and why does it remain depressed? Major subsidies and regulations intended to help the poor and unemployed were changed in more than a dozen ways—and although these policies were advertised as employment-expanding, the fact is that they reduced incentives for people to work and for businesses to hire.

About 956,000 Sacramento residents were employed in 2013, compared to 982,000 in 2007, the year before the recession began. Sacramento has added another 14,000 jobs so far in 2014 but still lags behind the pre-recession total. The United States as a whole has regained all of the jobs lost during the recession.

A University of Virginia Miller Center commission, chaired by former Governors Haley Barbour and Evan Bayh, released a report offering innovative, non-partisan, actionable ideas on how to create middle-class manufacturing jobs.

The statewide unemployment rate fell two-tenths of a percentage point, to 7.6 percent, the Employment Development Department reported Friday. It was the lowest level since August 2008, a month before the market crash tipped the country into recession.

College-educated Americans tend to know mostly other college-educated Americans and to think that is the norm, if not universal. In fact, just three in 10 Americans age 25 or older have bachelor’s degrees. Another 8% are high-school dropouts, leaving the overwhelming majority—more than 60%—in circumstances something like Mr. Blazier’s.