Center Will Provide Comprehensive Data to Help Understand California’s Employment Landscape
Sacramento, August 22, 2013 – Today the California Business Roundtable announced the launch of the California Center for Jobs and the Economy. The Center will provide a comprehensive view of California’s employment picture by region as well as by demographics and industry sectors. The website provides a new data tool that allows users to visually see what is occurring in the state with respect to employment, wages, and other economic data across the regions, by county and by State Senate and Assembly districts.
“California businesses, residents and elected officials are going to greatly benefit from the creation of the Center for Jobs and the Economy. The factual data that the Center distributes is going to give California the opportunity to assess a variety of aspects of the jobs environment and the economy, ultimately allowing for further understanding of California’s business climate,” stated Tom Conley, Chairman of the California Business Roundtable.
Building off the work of regional economic development groups, the Center for Jobs and the Economy was formed to provide an objective and nonpartisan source of information about the jobs environment and economic trends in California, as well as providing information to understand current policy decisions and their impacts on job creation. The data is organized by statewide, GoBiz regions, county level and senate and assembly districts. The Center has the capability of providing comprehensive data in one place including unemployment rates, county demographics, industry specific information, job growth statistics and types of jobs gained and lost.
“California is experiencing an uneven economic recovery,” said Rob Lapsley, President, of the California Business Roundtable. “We have developed this site to better understand what Governor Brown has referred to as the ‘two-tiered economy’ and also to help policymakers and the Administration to get a better understanding of California’s jobs situation and how it can be improved.”
California does not have an existing resource that provides comprehensive, unbiased data aimed at understanding the business and jobs climate. The Center will be a resource which seeks to fill the current information gap by providing easily accessible data to the general public, policymakers, media and businesses to further understand the jobs picture and the implications to California’s economy.
“It has become clearer in recent years that California’s policy makers are suffering from a lack of information with respect to job creation. With the launch of the Center for Jobs and the Economy, California is presented with an exciting opportunity. Finally we will have a resource to rely on to provide factual, comprehensive, impartial data in a transparent and useful manner that will help us further understand how businesses and jobs are being affected by current policy,” said Dr. Michael Shires, Pepperdine University School of Public Policy.
The data from the Center for Jobs and the Economy is an evolving resource and will be expanded and updated as data becomes available. All of the data provided is from publically available data from a variety of sources including US Census Bureau, US Bureau of Economic Analysis, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, California Employment Development Department, and California Department of Finance.
The Center for Jobs and the Economy was created by the California Business Roundtable as a stand-alone 501c(3) public benefit corporation with its own governance structure and a research advisory council.