News

We scored all 50 states on 51 measures of competitiveness developed with input from business groups including the National Association of Manufacturers and the Council on Competitiveness.

This report analyzes fundamental demographic and employment trends that are changing our nation’s workforce and seem certain to continue long beyond the ongoing recovery from the recent deep recession.

California is poised to pass Italy and the Russian Federation and become the world’s eighth-largest economy in 2013.

California is poised to pass Italy and the Russian Federation and become the world’s eighth-largest economy in 2013.

SACRAMENTO – As California’s economy continues to rebound from the recession, the California Employment Development Department (EDD) is warning long-term unemployed individuals that they may no longer be eligible for the last tier in federal unemployment extension benefits. That’s because California’s unemployment rate is on track to dip below a three-month average of 9% – the minimum level required by federal guidelines in order to provide the final ten weeks of additional benefits associated with a Tier 4 federal extension.

California approached midyear 2013 with moderating employment gains and a steadily falling unemployment rate. Real estate markets were also improving and home building improved fitfully. Preliminary estimates show that personal income dropped 1.8 percent in the first quarter of 2013 from the fourth quarter of 2012, reflecting in part the expiration of the payroll tax holiday and the acceleration of income from 2013 into 2012.

Company: Bank of AmericaCA Net Job Gain/Loss: -543Reason: LayoffCity/Region Losing Jobs: Fresno, CA

California is reconsidering landmark consumer protections and energy conservation measures that were written into residential utility bills during the state’s 2000-2001 energy crisis.

A project that would have included a solar power station and a million-square-foot solar panel factory a few miles from the California state line won’t be built, its backers announced last month. The $5 billion, Chinese-backed ENN Mojave Energy project at the southernmost corner of Nevada couldn’t find utilities that wanted to buy its power, either in Nevada or across the line in California.

This report provides an updated and expanded view of charter school performance in the United States.

This report is the successor to Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Demand through 2018, in which we examined the connections between educational attainment and educational demand in the labor market.

When wind or solar energy displace conventional generation, the reduction in emissions varies dramatically across the United States. Although the Southwest has the greatest solar resource, a solar panel in New Jersey displaces significantly more sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter than a panel in Arizona, resulting in 15 times more health and environmental benefits. A wind turbine in West Virginia displaces twice as much carbon dioxide as the same turbine in California.

The 2013 Manufacturing and Logistics National Report shows how each state ranks among its peers in several areas of the economy that underlie the success of manufacturing and logistics.

It’s been a rough week for California in the media. Analysts have been more critical lately of Gov. Jerry Brown’s record on the state’s roughly $213 billion public pension debt and his continued pursuit of costly infrastructure projects such as high-speed rail and a massive water delivery system for the Central Valley.

California political leaders, starting with Gov. Jerry Brown, should be popping the champagne corks: the state has rebounded enough to surpass Italy and Russia and reclaim its title as the world’s eight’s largest economy in 2013, according to a new study by the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy.