In 2017, California’s economy grew at an estimated rate of 2.5 percent, faster than the nation as a whole, which grew at 2.4 percent. While impressive, California’s economy continued to slow down from the 3.3 percent year-over year growth achieved in 2016, and from the over 4 percent year-over-year percentage growth seen in 2014 and 2015. California currently accounts for 14.1 percent of the nation’s GDP, far more than any other state, and its GDP is expected to expand by 2.7 percent in 2018 and 2.6 percent in 2019, again outpacing the nation.
. . . Still, it is a tale of two California’s, as there are a number of regions within the state where the labor markets continue to struggle with high unemployment and low growth. As of December 2017, three of California’s 58 counties still had unemployment rates of more than 10 percent, and nine more had rates higher than 8 percent. The highest recorded unemployment rates in California are in Imperial and Colusa counties with unemployment rates of 17.9 percent at 17.3 percent, respectively.
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