To learn more about who has professional certifications and licenses and how they fare in the labor market, we’ve added new questions to the Current Population Survey. That’s the monthly survey of about 60,000 households that we use to measure the U.S. labor force and unemployment rate.
California still has a higher rate of unemployment than the nation, at 5%, a sign that labor markets are still struggling in some parts of the state. Job growth was hampered by employment cuts in several industries, including high-paying fields such as professional and business services.
While precipitation has been roughly four times heavier than a year ago, the Delta pumps have produced just a 35 percent increase in water shipments. For every gallon that’s been pumped to south-of-Delta water agencies since Jan. 1, 3 1/2 gallons have been allowed to flow out to sea. Pumping activity has decreased considerably the past three weeks, to the rising irritation of south state contractors.
The standard portrayals of economic life for ordinary American families paint a picture of stagnancy, even decline, amidst rising economic inequality. But rarely does the public conversation about our changing economy, from the pages of the New York Times to the halls of the Brookings Institution, focus on questions of family structure. This is a major oversight: Though few realize it, the retreat from marriage plays a central role in the changing economic landscape of American families, in race relations in America, and in the deteriorating fortunes of poor boys. In a word, the increasingly “separate and unequal” character of family life in the United States is fueling economic, racial, and gender inequality.
Soaring rents also have undesirable demographic effects: They drive middle class families (generally a moderating force in city politics) out of urban areas, and make it difficult for young people not in fields like finance, tech, or consulting to get a footing in the housing market—a critical step toward achieving adulthood. Getting rents under control should be a major priority for any reform-minded politician—Left or Right—who wants to prioritize fairness, growth, and political stability. And that means beating back corrupt and outdated building restrictions.
The reason why California faces a housing affordability crisis is simple, many experts say: Lots of people want to live in the state and there aren’t enough houses for them. . . Legislators have shied away from tackling broad efforts to increase housing supply, such as overhauling the California Environmental Quality Act or reforming the tax code to incentivize residential development. Doing so would force lawmakers to take on some of the largest and thorniest policy issues in the Capitol.
U.S. consumer prices rose in March for the first time in four months, but the mild gain underscores that only modest inflation pressures exist in the economy.
Forty-five percent of the state’s income tax money comes from the top 1 percent of filers – those with adjusted gross income of at least $501,000. Those taxpayers recorded an average adjusted gross income of $1.6 million in 2013, almost double what it was in 1994.
In fact, a new poll found that 54 percent of Golden State voters think they pay too much income tax. The latest Field Poll also shows that 40 percent of Californians actually believe they’re taxed just enough. Only 2 percent said taxes are too low.
In our March PPIC Statewide Survey, most Californians see the system as fair. But when asked about their personal state and local tax burden, a majority of residents (56%) said they pay more than they should. A little over one-third of Californians (37%) said they pay the right amount in state and local taxes, while only 4% said they pay less than they should.
The enactment of California’s $15 state minimum wage is, of course, not the final word, as state leaders will be able to make adjustments over time to deal with the current unknowns. The plan to reach $15 by 2022 includes provisions for delaying the scheduled increases if the economy weakens or the state budget is projected to face a deficit, as discussed above. In addition, because the increase will be implemented gradually, policymakers will be able to monitor its effects and make additional adjustments if necessary. For example, it will be important to look at how the minimum wage increase affects lower-cost regions of the state, where the wage hike is expected to have a much greater impact, and also how it affects workers’ access to subsidized child care, which low-paid workers need in order to work.
Economic activity in the District grew at a moderate pace during the reporting period of mid-February through the end of March. Overall price inflation firmed somewhat, while upward wage pressures grew at a moderate pace. Sales of retail goods and consumer and business services expanded moderately. Demand for manufacturing products grew modestly. Activity in the agriculture sector picked up, and residential and commercial real estate market activity continued to expand at a robust pace. Lending activity continued to grow at a modest pace.
A continuing storyline of the California economy is the enormous job creation and job destruction that goes on below the surface of the monthly job numbers. Each month around 300,000 payroll jobs are destroyed, and an equal amount created, even as the monthly payroll job total moves only a little.
Los Angeles city council will hear a proposal on Tuesday to exempt union members from a $15 an hour minimum wage that the unions themselves have spent years fighting for.
However, on one metric the employment situation remains stubborn: long-term unemployment. The share of unemployed persons stuck without a job for 27 weeks or longer is 28 percent, as opposed to 19 percent pre-recession. That is down somewhat from 37 percent when the economy was at peak unemployment, but still worryingly high.