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VOL. 2, NO. 11

Published November 16, 2016

IN THIS EDITION:

Treasurer John Chiang Sanctions Wells Fargo, Others Follow

California State Treasurer John Chiang is leading a growing movement of state and local governments outraged over fraudulent marketing practices of Wells Fargo Bank. He and his new allies are backing up that anger with tough economic sanctions. Read more

California Job Tracker: California Employers Still Hiring

California's nonfarm employers created 30,000 more jobs in September compared with the prior month. Read more

Guest Column: A Reader's Guide to Policy Analysis with Big Data

The term "Big Data" has been used to describe the burgeoning practice of using massive amounts of data from various sources--including unstructured data collected for other purposes--to do statistical analyses. Here are eight issues that should be considered when evaluating Big Data studies. Read more

Intersections: A monthly go-to for reliable facts and analysis about California's debt, investments and economy

California Job Tracker: California Employers Still Hiring

California�s nonfarm employers created 30,000 more jobs in September compared with the prior month. This came on the top of a 48,000 job gain registered in August. September gains continued to be widespread, with particularly large numerical increases in education, health care, construction, government, and tourism.

Figure 1: Pie chart showing that 3 out of 4 Metro areas outperform US job growth

Figure 1: Pie chart showing that 3 out of 4 Metro areas outperform US job growth

California outperformed the nation in terms of the year-over-year percent change in jobs for the 55th consecutive month. California�s gain was 2.3 percent versus the national 1.7 percent rise. Three-fourths of California�s metropolitan regions outperformed the nation. More than half of them (16) outperformed both the state and the country as a whole. (See Figure 1.)

Most of California remains in full recovery mode, with a number of metropolitan areas continuing to reach new employment highs. Only four metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), representing just 3 percent of the regional job total, have not fully recovered to their pre-recession peaks. (See Figure 2.)

California�s jobless rate held steady at 5.5 percent for the third month in a row. More people are now entering the work force and many of them are finding jobs. However, California�s economy will now need to run even faster to press the jobless rate further down. Still, we are a long way from the 12 percent unemployment high experienced six years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Percent Change in Jobs from Pre-Recession Peaks

Figure 2 - Map of California showing areas which have recovered or not recovered

See raw data: Employment numbers by region.

Source: FBEI, EDD

Lynn Reaser is chair of the treasurer’s Council of Economic Advisors and chief economist at the Fermanian Business and Economic Institute for Point Loma Nazarene University. The opinions in this article are presented in the spirit of spurring discussion and reflect those of the author and not necessarily the Treasurer, his office or the State of California.