News

The U.S. has become more competitive with other nations in manufacturing costs over the past decade.

Company: Ceradyne Inc.CA Net Job Gain/Loss: -90Reason: LayoffCity/Region Losing Jobs: Costa Mesa, CA

A new report, “The Hidden STEM Economy,” reveals that a university degree is not required for 27.5 percent of all jobs in the San Jose area in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. The number is even higher — 36 percent — in San Francisco and the East Bay.

Southern California Edison says its closure of the troubled San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station will force the company to lay off 900 workers in the next few months.

California could use $44.5 billion to fix aging water systems over the next two decades, according to a federal survey that placed the state at the top of a national list of water infrastructure needs.

Southern California’s housing recovery surged last month as buyers scrambled for a short supply of homes.

California’s San Joaquin Valley is one of the richest agricultural regions in the world, with Fresno County farmers receiving a record $6.8 billion in revenues last year. But the region also consistently ranks among the nation’s most impoverished.

California’s enterprise zones have been a part of state government since the mid-1980s, but there is disagreement as to whether they have successfully attracted and retained businesses or merely shifted commercial activities from communities without zones to others where the program is in effect.

Digital technology is transforming manufacturing, making it leaner and smarter, and raising the prospect of an American industrial renaissance.

Despite high unemployment, manufacturers find themselves short of skilled candidates for many jobs, such as operating or programming computer-controlled cutting tools or repairing sophisticated machinery. Manufacturers also fret that the U.S. isn’t producing enough engineers to design products and factory processes—and drive innovation.

WASHINGTON, D.C., 06/10/13 – According to the second quarter National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)/IndustryWeek Survey of Manufacturers released today, manufacturers’ concerns over health care and insurance costs are mounting. In addition, the unfavorable business climate due to taxes and regulation and uncertainties related to the political climate continue to be top concerns for manufacturers. More than half of survey respondents stated they were either not prepared or uncertain about how their firm planned to implement provisions of the Affordable Care Act at the beginning of 2014.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A resurgent housing market, rising home values and steady job gains are helping more U.S. homeowners stay on top of their mortgage payments.

In January, Los Angeles Times business columnist Michael Hiltzik wrote a piece dealing with the movement of a manufacturing firm out of California. He used the loss of the firm to lament the difficulties faced by the state’s manufacturers and the fact California lacks any industrial development policy. In March, the paper’s Sacramento columnist, George Skelton, wrote an article citing the difficulties being created for the state by misuse of the CEQA process. Key observers thus appear to be starting to understand that our state government, with Democrats now controlling every constitutional office and veto proof majorities in both houses, has done little to worry about California’s prosperity and the huge portion of its residents with high school or less educations. As the Chief Economist of the Inland Empire Economic Partnership, I have had to worry about these facts as they directly affect the region about which we are concerned.

The headline numbers for the May jobs report are about what you would expect for a New Normal economy stuck in 2% growth mode: 175,000 net new jobs last month, the unemployment rate ticking up to 7.6%. No broad signs of acceleration; just the opposite, in fact. As Barclays bank points out, the three-month average increase in nonfarm payrolls through May is now 155,000 vs. a first-quarter average of 207,000. (And at May’s pace of job creation, it would take another 58 months to get back to 5% unemployment.)

Company: AlbertsonsCA Net Job Gain/Loss: -2500Reason: LayoffCity/Region Losing Jobs: Southern California areaNotes: Job losses from 247 store locations throughout Southern California