A few steps from the concrete footprints of Clark Gable and Bette Davis, the Democratic governor took the front-and-center seat among a crowd of dignitaries to celebrate the tax break he had come to sign into law at a desk below the theater’s decorative dragons.
New figures highlight the growing gap between owners and renters in the Southland: Many homeowners are capitalizing on low interest rates to push down their monthly payment while renters are shelling out larger shares of their income to stay afloat.
The economic recovery in California struggled through the first half of the year but now is picking up speed, driven by improvements in the real estate and the job markets, according to a quarterly report from Beacon Economics and City National Bank..
The third-quarter report, released Thursday, predicts that the state unemployment rate will sink to 5.7% by the end of 2016 from 7.4% now. That would continue to top the national rate, which UCLA economists expect will fall to 5.3% from its current 6.1%.
California, in particular Gov. Jerry Brown, had lobbied hard to persuade Musk to build his battery factory in the state, where Tesla has its headquarters and where it already builds its popular but expensive vehicles.
California is home to the busiest port complex in the country and the largest manufacturing center, but where exports are concerned, it’s neither the heaviest mover nor the top employer..
A report released Wednesday by researchers at USC found that immigrants who are in California illegally make up nearly 10% of the state’s workforce and contribute $130 billion annually to its gross domestic product..
The largest manufacturing workforce in the country is based in the Los Angeles, Long Beach and Santa Ana metropolitan area, according to government figures..
Construction in California is a $152-billion industry, one in which so-called gray employment has surged 400% since 1972. The upswing has been especially pronounced since the most recent recession because only two-thirds of the formal construction jobs that disappeared have since returned.
California would be particularly affected because much of the state does not meet the current, weaker standard for ozone that has been in place since 2008. . . “We’re going to need to have zero or near-zero emissions across the entire economy, from transportation to businesses, to residences and personal products,” said Sam Atwood, a spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which includes Los Angeles and Orange counties.
A decade ago, nearly 4,000 apparel-making sites operated in Los Angeles County, according to government figures. Fewer than 2,200 remain. Employment has plunged from 90,200 in 1990 to 46,000 last year.
For more than a decade, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has touted the “deal-closing” Texas Enterprise Fund and other cash incentives as a “job-creation machine.” A fifth of the companies that Texas attracted during the last funding cycle, in 2011 and 2012, were based in California.
California is one of the most expensive states for businesses to operate, mainly because of high pay and related labor costs, says a new report commissioned by an arm of the state Chamber of Commerce..
California added more than 27,000 jobs in July, but the state unemployment rate remained flat at 7.4% as the size of the labor force shrank slightly from last month’s estimates..
Southern California home sales plunged in July and show little signs of rebounding. And that, economists say, could stunt the region’s economic growth..