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This changed when a combination of keen Asian competition and Californian regulation gradually shifted the chip and computer manufacturers out of Silicon Valley, which has lost roughly 80,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000. The new Valley is predominately post-industrial. For example, only 30 of about 16,000 production workers for the iPod are based in the US.
As Silicon Valley became software valley, tech firms no longer needed large numbers of semi-skilled workers and the network of small subcontractors to keep the industrial machine going. Those services, if needed, could be performed in India, China, Utah, Texas or North Carolina. ‘The job creation has changed’, notes long-time San Jose economic development official Leslie Parks. ‘We used to be the whole food chain and create all sorts of middle-class jobs. Now, increasingly, we don’t design the future – we just think about it. . .

The reason for such bleak retirement prospects is the disappearance of traditional defined benefit pensions and the failure of 401(k)-type plans to fill the gap. A recent analysis by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that, in 2011, only 14% of private-sector employees participated in a defined benefit pension plan. The participation rate has been falling quite rapidly, so it was almost certainly lower in 2015.

This state, forward-looking on other environmental issues, has been stymied for decades over how to upgrade its plumbing system, an immense but aging network of reservoirs and canals that move water from the mountainous north to the drier south.

The employment patterns of immigrants differ from those of U.S.-born workers across industries and states. This interactive captures the variation by measuring the employment distribution ratio, which compares the likelihood that an immigrant worker is employed in each of 13 industries with that of an U.S.-born worker in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The sharing economy has been under continuous attack since it started to gain traction among consumers. And for one simple reason: it challenges the status quo, which regulators and bureaucrats do not like.

California employers added just 5,500 net new jobs in November, according to federal data — a significant slowdown from more robust monthly gains earlier in the year.

“Absolutely not. I think that’s complete hogwash … If you look at this from the point of view of California, this [climate change regulations] is a job creator, it’s a reducer of people’s energy costs. It gives people higher incomes. On a pure numbers basis, I totally reject the idea that there is a cost to this.”

If these trends continue – and there’s no reason to believe they won’t – the redrawing of legislative and congressional districts should see a noticeable shift from Southern California to Northern California and particularly the Bay Area.

“The justices by a 6-3 vote overturned a state ruling and threw out a class-action lawsuit against DirecTV over its termination fees for customers who canceled its service,” the Los Angeles Times reported. “The high court said the Federal Arbitration Act calls for honoring arbitration agreements that are written into company contracts, regardless of whether there are more consumer-friendly protections set by states such as California.”

To illustrate, take the most recent PPIC survey. In it, 57% of Californian adults say global climate change is a very serious problem. This, by itself, would suggest overwhelming support for climate change action. But while it shows concern, it doesn’t necessarily reveal motivation. To understand voter saliency, one must force respondents to prioritize among policy concerns. The same PPIC survey does just that by asking “thinking about the state as a whole, what do you think is the most important issue facing people in California today?”. Just 3% of Californian adults named the “environment, pollution, global warming.”

On the macro level, California is finally coming out of the Great Recession, but on a micro level, this recovery is precariously balanced on the shoulders of one region. If something were to happen to the Silicon Valley-Bay Area region, the Golden State currently has no Plan B. This isn’t meant as a critique of the other regions of California, but rather a critique of how Sacramento has largely been blinded by the macro-level data to the detriment of exploring ways to spur growth in a more diversified manner.

The University of California is being pressed by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and a long list of high-powered CEOs to count computer science as a math course in deciding whether applicants meet its minimum standards to be considered for admission.

The Federal Reserve said it would raise its benchmark interest rate from near zero for the first time since December 2008, and emphasized it will likely lift it gradually thereafter in a test of the economy’s capacity to stand on its own with less support from super-easy monetary policy.

California – and particularly Los Angeles County – are leading the nation in non-Anglo business ownership, a new Census Bureau report says.

Economists point to a crucial question: Will a higher minimum wage reduce the number of jobs for the country’s least skilled workers? President Obama says “there is no solid evidence that a higher minimum wage costs jobs.” On the contrary, a full and fair reading of the evidence shows the opposite. Raising the minimum wage will cost jobs, particularly those held by the least-skilled.