It’s an uncomfortable point of notoriety for a city with pockets of fabulous wealth that craves civility and political correctness. For the record, Palo Alto has “unhoused individuals,” not homeless people; and an Opportunity Center as opposed to a homeless shelter.
One of the biggest obstacles facing Americans today is a lack of opportunity and social mobility. While we have entry-level and high-end jobs, we have lost the jobs in the middle that helped each generation of Americans do better than the one before it. Some call this an “hourglass economy”; I tend to think of it as a canyon being hollowed out between the two ends of the job market.
California is poised to pass Italy and the Russian Federation and become the world’s eighth-largest economy in 2013.
California is poised to pass Italy and the Russian Federation and become the world’s eighth-largest economy in 2013.
California approached midyear 2013 with moderating employment gains and a steadily falling unemployment rate. Real estate markets were also improving and home building improved fitfully. Preliminary estimates show that personal income dropped 1.8 percent in the first quarter of 2013 from the fourth quarter of 2012, reflecting in part the expiration of the payroll tax holiday and the acceleration of income from 2013 into 2012.
California political leaders, starting with Gov. Jerry Brown, should be popping the champagne corks: the state has rebounded enough to surpass Italy and Russia and reclaim its title as the world’s eight’s largest economy in 2013, according to a new study by the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy.
Workers in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties are again among the highest-paid employees in the nation. A new report out from the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the average worker in San Mateo County earned $3,240 per week—more than three times the national average, and $1,100 more per week than the average worker in Manhattan.
The average weekly wage in San Mateo County California, the home of Silicon Valley behemoths like Facebook, increased 107.3 percent in the last quarter of 2012, making it the richest place in America — even ahead of Manhattan — all because of a little IPO that happened in May 2012. Here’s how the thinking goes: Facebook went public in May 2012. In November — 181 days after the offering — those with vested stock options could cash in. Sure, CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised not do that. But if Peter Thiel, one of the earliest and biggest investors in the social network took out something like $1 billion, you can bet some less famous names did as well. In that quarter alone, the roughly 6,200 tech workers in the area collected total wages of $6.8 billion, notes the Wall Street Journal’s Scott Thurm. “That kind of a jump can only be explained by what’s happening with stock” Doug Henton, chief executive of Collaborative Economics told Thurm. Some of that likely also came from other tech IPOs that year, but Facebook’s was by far the largest.
. . .the newly released data provide an interesting glimpse at how salaries for both public and private sector workers are recovering from the recession. State employee salaries are growing at dramatically different speeds, in comparison to both their peers in other states and private sector workers in their own states.
. . . three tailwinds that typically help drive strong recoveries—investment in housing, consumer confidence, and discretionary fiscal policy—have been absent or turned into headwinds this time.
On Thursday, Mother Jones collected three jarring snapshots of Silicon Valley’s much-discussed (but largely under-studied) disparities between individuals of different genders and races.
Bracy’s talk featured some eye-popping charts on Silicon Valley’s race and gender divide.
State and county level data on migration drawn from federal income tax return filings. Currently available 1990 to 2010.
Annual measures of GDP and income for the state, counties, and metropolitan areas
. . . contribution of national defense to state and regional economies.