Heading into the Fourth of July weekend, a gallon of regular gasoline on the West Coast averages a penny over $4, the highest price of any region in the country. Costly Alaskan oil is a key factor in these high gas prices, and that oil is gradually running out.
Why has the labor market contracted so much and why does it remain depressed? Major subsidies and regulations intended to help the poor and unemployed were changed in more than a dozen ways—and although these policies were advertised as employment-expanding, the fact is that they reduced incentives for people to work and for businesses to hire.
The coast’s share of containerized cargo fell from just over half of all tonnage arriving from Asia in 2004 to about 40% in 2013, much of that erosion coming from increased competition from Canada and Mexico. That has contributed to the air of harmony between port operators and dockworkers.
About 956,000 Sacramento residents were employed in 2013, compared to 982,000 in 2007, the year before the recession began. Sacramento has added another 14,000 jobs so far in 2014 but still lags behind the pre-recession total. The United States as a whole has regained all of the jobs lost during the recession.
In a conference call with oil industry analysts in late 2012, Mike Wirth, a Chevron Corp. executive, took stock of California’s greenhouse gas reduction policies and warned that the state’s plan to expand its controversial cap-and-trade program to vehicle fuels in 2015 would result in higher prices at the pump.
There’s also an element of hypocrisy. The state’s Democratic politicians have uniformly rejected criticism that the state’s high taxes and dense regulatory thicket discourage job-creating investment. But if that’s true, why then do they then offer subsidies to certain favored industries to keep them from fleeing . . . Rather than handing our money to particular industries or companies, wouldn’t it be fairer – and more seemly – to make California more attractive to all would-be job creators and avoid the shadowy politics of targeted subsidies?
Despite the steadily decreasing unemployment rate, a majority of voters describe the employment situation in the state as very serious. Sixty-four percent say jobs are difficult to find in their communities, while just 21 percent have the impression they’re widely abundant.
Moody’s Investors Service, one of the nation’s largest credit rating organizations, upgraded its rating of California’s $86 billion in general obligation debt Wednesday, citing the state’s “rapidly improving financial position.”
The U.S. economy contracted at a much steeper pace than previously estimated in the first quarter, but there are indications that growth has since rebounded strongly.
Seven of the lowest rated cities in the country were found in California – of 82 cities rated, San Jose was #68, Santa Rosa #70, Riverside #71, Los Angeles #74, Oxnard #76, San Diego #78, and Sacramento #82. Sacramento was rated the worst city in the country for small business.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation has released its annual Enterprising States study, offering an in-depth look at the free enterprise policies being implemented to promote economic growth at the state and local levels. . . The 2014 report relates these policies and practices to the need for collaboration between education, workforce development, and economic development to positively combat the nation’s growing skills gap.
A University of Virginia Miller Center commission, chaired by former Governors Haley Barbour and Evan Bayh, released a report offering innovative, non-partisan, actionable ideas on how to create middle-class manufacturing jobs.
“Exceptional” drought conditions have spread in Central California since a week ago, weather officials said. Areas in Northern California have also moved into this category since last week, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Highways have slipped below the political radar, even though Californians rack up more than 300 billion miles of automotive travel each year and even though the highways suffer from severe deficiencies that would, the California Transportation Commission says, cost $700 billion over the next decade to erase, several times what current revenue would produce.
The statewide unemployment rate fell two-tenths of a percentage point, to 7.6 percent, the Employment Development Department reported Friday. It was the lowest level since August 2008, a month before the market crash tipped the country into recession.