Gov. Jerry Brown delivered a mixed economic message to the Legislature last week – hailing California’s strong recovery from the Great Recession but warning it could quickly turn sour. The good news: “Two million jobs have been created, and unemployment has dropped in half.” The caveat: “Here at the state Capitol we often think we have more control over things than we actually do. But the truth is that global events, markets and policies set the pace and shape the world we live in.” A day after Brown delivered his sober-sided message, urging legislators to build budget reserves against the likelihood of recession, his Department of Employment released job data for December, closing out 2015. Superficially, the numbers looked good. The state added another 60,400 jobs during the final month of the year, raising the total for 2015 to about 265,000 and the recovery over six years to 2.2 million.
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