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Shipping companies are seeking the fastest route to move Asian goods to the U.S. Midwest, with a growing share of U.S.-bound cargo arriving first in Canada. The increased business suggests Canada’s efforts to exploit some natural geographic advantages by spending billions of dollars on its West Coast trade infrastructure are paying off.

Congestion, labor tensions and tax concerns at U.S. ports have also spurred some shippers to look north. . . Canada’s two big Pacific ports have a natural geographic advantage: relative proximity. Prince Rupert, for instance, is the closest North American port to Asia due to the curvature of the Earth, and is more than 68 hours closer to Shanghai by boat than Los Angeles, according to its port authority. It also boasts one of the world’s deepest natural ice-free harbors.

The state’s jobless rate currently sits at 7.3% — the nation’s fifth highest, and well above the overall U.S. rate of 5.8%. But California’s job creation has outpaced the national average since 2012, a trend that will continue, according to the quarterly UCLA Anderson Forecast released Wednesday.

This trend has likely helped hold back U.S. economic growth. Cities with the strongest job markets, such as New York and San Francisco, would grow even faster if more people could afford to live there, noted Jed Kolko, chief economist at the online real estate firm Trulia. The additional population would help spur further job growth, which, in turn, would strengthen the local economy and foster more of the middle-class jobs that the nation lacks.

This trend has likely helped hold back U.S. economic growth. Cities with the strongest job markets, such as New York and San Francisco, would grow even faster if more people could afford to live there, noted Jed Kolko, chief economist at the online real estate firm Trulia. The additional population would help spur further job growth, which, in turn, would strengthen the local economy and foster more of the middle-class jobs that the nation lacks.

Millennials tend to gravitate to certain cities. They’re more likely to live in San Diego than Newark, in Austin than Cleveland, in Washington than Tampa. But these geographic patterns bode poorly for their homeownership prospects: Millennials make up a larger share of the population in many metropolitan areas where they’re least likely to afford the housing.

A California law taking effect in January places new risks on companies that hire contracted labor through staffing agencies. Employers may wish to take extra steps to protect themselves from paying for wage theft or workers’ compensation violations made by that staffing agency, suggests a new report by the global insurance manufacturer Marsh. . . The Marsh report also notes California is a hotbed of alleged wage and hour violations — and employers may want to consider purchasing wage and hour insurance to protect against alleged violations.

Southern California, like the rest of America and, indeed, the higher-income world, is getting older, rapidly. Even as the region’s population is growing slowly, its ranks of seniors – people age 65 and older – is exploding. Since 2000, the Los Angeles metropolitan area population has grown by 6 percent, but its senior population swelled by 31 percent.

Wells Fargo’s stock-market cap hit $285.5 billion on Dec. 5, based on 5.19 billion shares outstanding as of Oct. 31, according to Bloomberg News.

But while San Jose and other cities will never literally reach a single employee who sits in the room mailing out pension checks, the trajectory is headed in that troubling direction. One city manager even quipped to a newspaper a few years ago that cities are becoming pension providers that offer a few public services on the side.

The much higher voter turnout of a presidential election, coupled with a much lower threshold for qualifying initiative ballot measures, creates the opportunity for pro-tax-increase forces – such as public employee unions – to make their big move.

The proportion of working-age Californians who are employed or actively seeking employment — known as the labor force participation rate — is the smallest it has been since the 1970s. In October, the state’s rate, 62.3%, fell below the national rate of 62.8%. Both rates have fallen sharply since the recession.

Employers in the state are still adding jobs at a faster pace than the rest of the country. But annual job growth nationwide expanded to a nine-month average of 1.8% this year from 1.7% in 2013, while the California rate has fallen to 2.2% from 3% last year.

The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, through the Department of Commerce, announced today that the goods and services deficit was $43.4 billion in October, down $0.2 billion from $43.6 billion in September, revised. October exports were $197.5 billion, $2.3 billion more than September exports. October imports were $241.0 billion, $2.1 billion more than September imports.

Nonfarm payrolls rose a seasonally adjusted 321,000 in November, the strongest month of hiring since January 2012, the Labor Department said Friday. Hiring was broad across industries, led by gains in the professional and business-services sector.

“We have a problem,” said former California Gov. Gray Davis, a featured speaker at the summit. “Fewer people are working and those who are working are making less money.”