California farmers, anchors of a $50 billion industry that represents 13 percent of the nation’s agricultural value and a critical source of its produce and milk, are facing an unprecedented squeeze on their livelihoods that could have repercussions in households from coast to coast. Beyond a decade-in-the-making labor shortage, spurred in part by a lack […]
Americans continued to abandon passenger cars in November, transitioning rapidly into crossovers, SUVs and pickups as automakers increasingly catered their products to shifting driver preferences. Automakers sold slightly fewer vehicles overall in November, compared with last year, according to analysts’ forecasts, including one from Edmunds.com, which projected auto sales fell 1.3 percent last month, and […]
Gas prices are expected to plunge sharply in the final days leading up to the midterm elections, potentially nearing $2 per gallon at some stations in low-tax states. The sudden respite at the pump comes from sharply lower oil prices and declining wholesale gasoline prices. Oil Price Information Service analyst Tom Kloza said it could […]
8. California 5 yr. GDP annual growth rate: +2.9% (2nd largest increase) 2017 GDP: $2.4 trillion (the largest) June 2018 Unemployment: 4.2% (tied — 18th highest) 5 yr. annual employment growth: +2.2% (8th largest increase) California’s economy grew at an annual rate of 2.9% from 2012 through 2017, the second fastest pace of any state.
President Trump’s announcement last year centered on his allegation that the Paris Agreement hurts the U.S. economy. The fact that our collective economies are stronger than non-alliance states proves just the opposite. Alliance states are not only reducing emissions more rapidly than the rest of the country, but we are also expanding our per capita […]
U.S. cities dominate the world’s top 10 most-traffic-congested urban areas, with Los Angeles leading in mind-numbing and costly gridlock, according to a new report issued Tuesday. La La Land, with its jam-packed freeways and driving culture despite billions being poured into rail transit, emerged from the 1,360 other cities in 38 countries to claim the […]
Recent findings show that the proportion of high school seniors graduating with an A average — that includes an A-minus or A-plus — has grown sharply over the past generation, even as average SAT scores have fallen. In 1998, it was 38.9%. By last year, it had grown to 47%. That’s right: Nearly half of America’s Class of 2016 are A students. Meanwhile, their average SAT score fell from 1,026 to 1,002 on a 1,600-point scale — suggesting that those A’s on report cards might be fool’s gold.
But perhaps the simplest step that could be taken immediately to advance the fight for $50 and reduce the skills gap is protecting the entry-level jobs that largely train the American workforce. In practice this means not pursuing minimum wage increases that destroy these opportunities. While only a small part of the workforce earns the minimum wage at a given time, a giant slice of it got its start at this level. Thousands of CEOs, including Jeff Bezos, Lloyd Blankfein, Warren Buffett, Michael Dell and even Barack Obama, began their careers at entry-level wage jobs.
Nowhere is that trend more pronounced than in Silicon Valley where the economic divide is widening between highly educated and skilled high-tech workers and low-paid workers who are trying to piece together a living in one of the country’s most expensive places.
The number of permits requested to make porn films in Los Angeles County has declined by an estimated 95% since the law took effect, according to Film LA, a private nonprofit that issues the licenses. The number of applications fell from about 480 in 2012 to just 24 through the first nine months of 2013.
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.