The California travel industry expanded for the fourth consecutive year following the 2007-2009 recession. In terms of both employment and real inflation-adjusted dollars, the California travel industry exceeded its pre-recession levels in 2013.
Political fallout over the seizure of Crimea has caused the U.S. government to rethink its partnership with Russia on space programs, which has bolstered business prospects for a historic California rocket company.
Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Wednesday that the economy should grow at much stronger rates the rest of this year as the country overcomes the impact of a harsh winter. But Lew said millions of Americans continue to struggle as unemployment remains too high and economic growth is too slow.
It has been five years since the official end of that severe economic downturn. The nation’s total annual output has moved substantially above the prerecession peak, but economic growth has averaged only about 2 percent a year, well below its historical average. Household incomes continue to stagnate, and millions of Americans still can’t find jobs. And a growing number of experts see evidence that the economy will never rebound completely.
Nearly one in four Los Angeles area employers plan to hire more workers during the third quarter, the best showing in several years, according to a survey released today from Manpower Inc.
Manufacturing activity as a share of U.S. GDP has been in steady decline for several decades. However, over the past two years there have been signs that this downward trend is abating. Evidence of the shifting tide is most apparent in durable goods output, especially in computer and electronics, motor vehicles and machinery, passing their pre-recession peak in the third quarter of 2011.
. . . Because manufacturing processes are often very energy intensive, favorable energy prices in the U.S. have proved particularly important to the re-shoring theme. Industries set to benefit most from these lower energy prices include organic chemicals, resins, agricultural chemicals, petroleum refining, metals (i.e. iron and steel) and machinery.
. . . Tax policy is another factor that can influence decisions as to where a company will locate various business activities. The individual tax rate is also very important to manufacturers as two-thirds of manufacturers are flow-through entities and pay taxes at individual tax rates.
Each month since April 2012 except one, Los Angeles County has seen at least 2% year-over-year job growth, compared with a 1.7% average across the country.
Unemployment fell from 3.3 to 3.2 percent for people with a bachelor’s degree or more, and from 5.7 to 5.5 percent for those with some college. But it actually rose from 6.3 to 6.5 percent for people with only a high school diploma, and from 8.9 to 9.1 percent for those without one.
Employers hired steadily in May, placing the U.S. on the one of the best four-month stretches of job creation since late 1990s and renewing optimism about the five-year-long recovery.
Nonfarm employment advanced a seasonally adjusted 217,000 last month, the Labor Department said Friday. April’s gain was revised down slightly, but the increase of 282,000 was the best in more than two years.
The Culver City firm behind many YouTube stars will lay off about 10% of its 380 employees, a person close to the digital media company said on Monday.
While the Bay Area will continue to lead the state, and the drought will hurt the recovery in the Central Valley, the UOP quarterly forecast says job gains will ripple throughout the state. Soon, California will have recovered all of the jobs lost to the recession, “a year earlier than previously forecast,” the forecast says.
California’s overall clean economy continues to create new jobs and business opportunities across diverse sectors, ranging from water efficiency and recycling to energy and battery technologies. Between January 2002 and January 2012, employment in California’s Core Clean Economy jumped 20 percent to reach nearly 196,000. During the same time period, jobs in the larger overall state economy grew by two percent
With regard to the 2014-15 budget, we project that if the Legislature adopts the Governor’s May Revision, the state would end 2014-15 with $3 billion in the state’s two budget reserves: the Budget Stabilization Account (BSA) established by Proposition 58 (2004) and the state’s traditional reserve, the Special Fund for Economic Uncertainties (SFEU). This total is roughly $850 million higher than the administration’s estimate for these reserves ($2.1 billion).
Hewlett-Packard Co. will cut an additional 11,000 to 16,000 jobs as the company pursues its restructuring under CEO Meg Whitman. That brings the total planned cuts to almost 50,000, which would equal roughly 15 percent of its global workforce.
Leading the nation in job growth in 2013, Texas likewise added more houses than any other state and is host to seven of the 15 fastest-growing cities in the country, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday.
The Lone Star State added about 250,000 jobs last year, about 20,000 ahead of California. About 118,000 housing units went up in Texas in 2013, or 25% of the 467,000 erected nationwide.
The Texas growth has been fueled by expansions in nearly every industry, including technology companies in Austin, financial firms in Dallas and oil drilling operations in the outskirts.