On the work front, the year finished out with weaker, but not alarming, numbers. “California employers added just 5,500 jobs in November, according to federal data — a significant slowdown from more robust monthly gains earlier in the year,” the Los Angeles Times reported. “But the state unemployment rate continued its five-year-long decline, dropping to 5.7 percent in November, the lowest in eight years.” By way of comparison, the nationwide unemployment rate has been hovering around 5 percent.

For a broader view of the economy, analysts looked to other factors. A string of reports reinforced the significance of Silicon Valley to the state’s health, although “red tape, high taxes and a burdensome cost of living” continued to dog Californians statewide, according to the San Jose Mercury News. “In one report, prepared by Beacon Economics for nonprofit group Next 10, a comprehensive look at California’s business climate determined that the Golden State is considerably more hospitable to business than suggested by conventional wisdom that sometimes elevates less costly states such as Texas,” the paper noted. “Another study, the Milken Institute’s annual Best-Peforming Cities Index, found that the San Jose metro area, which includes most of Santa Clara County, is the top performer for 2015.”

Two Californias

The analyses helped paint the picture of a state increasingly divided between a relatively prosperous coast and a more struggling interior. “By about 2 to 1, Californians believe the state is split between haves and have-nots, with slightly more people putting themselves in the latter category,” according to a survey reported by the Times and conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California. “Just fewer than half of Californians believe that the state will experience good economic times in the next year, but 41 percent say the economy will suffer tough times.”

Even cities just a few hours’ drive from Silicon Valley have limped toward recovery in the wake of the Great Recession. “Stockton, Fresno and Modesto were among the country’s 10 weakest performing metro regions in 2009, according to a Brookings Institution study, and in parts of the Inland Empire, 1 out of 75 homes was in some state of foreclosure — the fourth-highest count in the nation,” as the San Francisco Chronicle reported. “While the Bay Area was by no means spared from the recession, the impacts weren’t as stark. All counties in the region recorded lower employment losses than Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. A third of the counties in the Bay Area fared better than San Diego and Orange counties.”

Doubling down

Critics have warned that undue reliance on the seaboard, and on Silicon Valley in particular, would have risky distorting effects on policymakers’ views and deeds. Setting aside Silicon Valley and the Bay Area, for instance, “the Golden State’s employment growth between 2009 and 2014 and real gross domestic product per capita between 2009 and 2013 each drop about 2 percentage points,” as the Hoover Institution’s Carson Bruno observed. “This is a 55 percent reduction in economic growth and a 25 percent cut in employment growth for California without this one region.”

Thanks to the region’s dominance, the Golden State’s budgeting has become increasingly captive to its tax base. “California’s budget is currently in a strong position because of a surge in tax collections, specifically personal income tax collections,” Bruno added. “Without the Silicon Valley-Bay Area, average assessed taxes per capita would have dropped $249 per year since the Great Recession ended or the equivalent of approximately $7.9 billion per year. That is the difference between budget surpluses and budget deficits.”

California’s coastal metropolises have proven especially exposed to the ups and downs of international markets — especially China, where a weakening economy has broken the state’s run of record-setting exports. “California shipments to China in the August-to-October period fell by 11.4 percent, from $4.19 billion last year to $3.71 billion in 2015,” the Sacramento Bee noted. “Shipments declined across the board, from computer equipment to agricultural products.”

AB359 places a number of mandates on the purchaser of a grocery store that is larger than 15,000 square feet:

• The new owner must employ the store’s workers for at least 90 days after the purchase.
• If the new owner does not require as many employees, the workers must be retained based on seniority.
• None of the retained employees can be fired “without cause.”
• The new owner must provide a written performance evaluation for each worker and “shall consider” offering workers continued employment after 90 days.
• The new owner must abide by the collective bargaining agreement that was in effect for the previous owner of the store.

Importance of preserving CA jobs

The bill’s author, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, argued on the Assembly floor May 26 that it’s important to preserve California jobs in the face of corporate takeovers:

“When Wall Street-style mergers, private equity firms and leveraged buyouts hit the grocery industry, a high number of jobs are put at risk, wages are reduced and workers are fired. It’s unsustainable for many of our communities.”

 

“Historically, these are some of the last good-paying middle-class jobs that have played an important role in our communities. They are jobs that can’t leave California, they can’t be outsourced to another country. They are part of the backbone of our very communities. I think we should respect our grocery workers.”

Two Assembly Democrats spoke in favor of the bill.

Roger Hernandez, D-West Covina, complained that 41 percent of the state’s largest grocery stores are owned by private equity firms:

“We know that such firms don’t always have the best interest of workers in our local communities at heart. So I think this bill is an important check to protect middle class jobs.”

 

“Folks, we all say we are all in support of protecting middle-class jobs and stopping the erosion of good-paying jobs in California. We have the opportunity to do that just here. And we have the right and the ability here to stand up for these workers that depend on their jobs and sustain for their families. Let’s send a message to our communities that we back up the workers that enjoy benefits, access to health care, proper hours and the opportunity to sustain their families.”

Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, believes AB359 will help his 56th Assembly District, including Imperial County, which has a 21 percent unemployment rate:

“Sometimes we have to push public policy to ensure the retainment of jobs in California. I think this bill does exactly that, protecting the opportunity for workers to stay employed until the company has the opportunity to make the proper assessment in order to make a permanent hire. I cannot afford for Imperial County to continue to see rising unemployment rates for this state.”

Small business owner concerns

The bill was opposed by nearly every Republican Assembly member, several of whom spoke in opposition. James Gallagher, R-Nicolaus, noting that most grocery stores are not owned by private equity firms, is concerned that the employment mandate will hurt small business owners.

“When we discussed this in Judiciary Committee, one of my concerns was this would impact a lot of small and family-owned grocery stores in the state,” said Gallagher. “At least part of when you take over a new grocery store is that that store wasn’t doing well. You’re trying to keep it alive in the community moving forward, so you need to make personnel decisions. This could inhibit that.”

Gonzalez responded that family-owned grocery stores tend to be smaller than 15,000 square feet and would not be affected by the bill.

“But even if they did [own a larger store], they would simply be required to maintain a workforce for 90 days,” she said. “After which time, as long as they gave them a good shot and allowed them to apply for a job, they could say no to every single one of those employees. It’s a cushion, it is not a mandate.”

But Assemblywoman Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, argued that the employment provisions would lead to litigation and punitive penalties under a portion of the state’s labor code known as the Private Attorney General Act:

“You have to make personnel decisions, decisions on making a grocery store succeed or survive or any business,” Grove said. “PAGA’s a hot issue because we have lot of trial lawyers in the state of California who are abusing PAGA under modern extortion with the protection under the law.

 

“But in this particular situation, if you have an employee who stays on 90 days and the successor grocery stores chooses not to hire them, they will have 33 days to cure it. Meaning 33 days to change your mind or ‘I will sue you.’ It’s just a law that creates an unfair burden on all of the employers, especially if they are trying to salvage companies that are in a transition.”

Will bill increase litigation?

Assemblyman Donald Wagner, R-Irvine, echoed Grove’s concerns:

“Bottom line is this: if you’ve got a workforce and at the end of that 90-day period you fire them all, there is not a lawyer in this state that would not salivate at the opportunity,” he said. “It does not matter if, for example, you’ve got a store, your neighborhood is changing, perhaps more of our Hispanic constituents are moving into the neighborhood, and you would like to reflect the change and hire those workers in your new establishment that perhaps is catering to that demographic.

 

“You cannot, under this bill, respond to that demographic change and make the necessary changes in the workforce. Because there will be lawyers lined up out your door waiting to hired by every one of those workers.

 

“We aren’t talking about a zero sum game here. We aren’t talking about firing a whole bunch of workers and hiring nobody else. We are talking about hiring different workers coming up out of that community that maybe are now more reflective of that community than they were in the past.

 

“And we up here, because we are so much smarter than they are and know better than any one of our individual business owners, are saying, ‘No, you can’t do that.’ Well, we are not smarter and we shouldn’t be saying that. We should say no instead to this bill and allow our business owners on the ground to respond to our constituents on the ground, rather than pretend that we up here know better.”

Gonzalez dismissed the concern that her bill will lead to litigation abuse under the Private Attorney General Act.

“Twice last week we voted for bills that are subject to PAGA – 69 times in the last two years,” she said. “Once last week this entire body voted for a bill that had worker retention for airport workers. On the books of our state we have worker retention for janitors. And at nearly every one of our airports, we have had at some point adopted worker retention ordinances.

 

“This is not new. There are not lines of attorneys lining up to sue these agencies or the grocery stores in the five cities that have already passed this. This is in fact less litigation-happy than a lot of the bills that we pass through here.”

Bill labeled “Job Killer”

The California Chamber of Commerce issued a floor alert calling AB359 a “job killer” and charging that the bill:

• Subjects employers to multiple threats of litigation.
• Denies employers the basic choice of whom to hire in their workforce.
• Eliminates an employer’s opportunity to investigate applicants before hiring.
• Forces an employer to adhere to terms of a contract to which it is not a party.
• Does not provide stability or reduce unemployment in the grocery industry.
• Discourages investment in grocery establishments and jeopardizes jobs.

The bill will next be considered by the Senate Rules Committee.

Los Angeles is a city facing economic decline, weighed down by poverty, strangled by traffic and suffering from a crisis of leadership, according to a report released Wednesday by a 13-member panel of influential civic leaders.

The Los Angeles 2020 Commission offered a harsh assessment of government decision-making, warning that the nation’s second-largest city is heading to a future where it can no longer afford to provide public services. Among a litany of problems highlighted in the report are underfunded retirement programs for City Hall employees, slower police and fire response times, and government spending that is growing faster than revenue. …

Among the challenges highlighted by the panel: a poverty rate higher than many other American cities; city revenue that has remained flat since 2009; a shrinking middle class; and “wishful” responses to a “continued economic decline.”

Garcetti focuses on public safety, building standards

But Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, elected in May 2013, continues to focus on other issues and not take on what the commission depicts as the causes of his city’s broad decline. That was evident Tuesday in his second State of the City address, as reported by the L.A. Times:

[New] public safety initiatives … headlined the mayor’s second State of the City speech, delivered at Cal State Northridge. During the broad-ranging address, which lasted nearly an hour, Garcetti recounted accomplishments of his first two years in office and elements of his agenda he is still pursuing.

Among the ongoing initiatives the mayor cited is a proposal to raise the city’s minimum wage and mandate the strengthening of buildings that could collapse in a major earthquake. In the San Fernando Valley, where Garcetti chose to deliver his speech, the latter topic has special resonance for residents who suffered the worst effects of the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

He said he hopes a major earthquake “will not happen during my time as mayor, and God willing, not in our lifetimes. But it will happen. It’s overdue.”

The mayor announced new technology-related policy proposals that could prove controversial: Collecting taxes from the vacation-rental company Airbnb and allowing the ride-share services Uber and Lyft to pick up customers at Los Angeles International Airport. (Currently, the app-based ride services can only pick up limited numbers of passengers at LAX.)

On a more pedestrian note, Garcetti pledged to place 5,000 new trash cans in the city to help remedy what he called “dirty streets lined with broken TVs and abandoned couches.”

40 percent of city’s residents live in poverty

The Times also noted the mayor emphasized his accountability by saying “as long as I’m your mayor, I won’t duck bad news. I’m going to own it.”

Bruce Bialosky, a Los Angeles writer, doesn’t agree. This is from his sad take on his home city on Townhall.com last year:

Eight percent of Los Angelenos earn poverty pay. If you include those out of work, they state 40 percent of residents live in misery.

Los Angeles is the only one of seven major metropolitan areas in the country to have a net decline in employment over the last decade.

Major industries are leaving; none are moving here. Twelve companies on the Fortune 500 used to call Los Angeles home, and now just four do.

The school system graduates just 60 percent of its students from high school and only 32 percent are qualified for either the UC or Cal State University systems.

The pension system has set aside only 10 percent of the future needs of city workers.

The “Time for Truth” report can be read here.

It is not the only grim look at Los Angeles’ economy. According to a UCLA Anderson report issued last year, L.A. saw a 3 percent decline in payroll jobs from 1990 to 2013. During that span, L.A.’s population went up 11 percent, from 3.49 million to 3.85 million.

Last week, the California Chamber of Commerce, known simply as CalChamber, announced a preliminary draft of its “job killer” bills, an annual list of proposed legislation that will hurt the state’s business community and economic competitiveness.

This year’s list includes 16 bills that, the chamber says, will make it harder to do business in California by increasing labor costs, litigation costs, health care costs and taxes. Notably excluded from the chamber’s list is a $10 billion sales tax on services that is being proposed by State Senator Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys.

“Although we will be opposing a number of bills throughout this year, the ‘job killer’ list represents the worst of the worst,” said Allan Zaremberg, president and CEO of the California Chamber of Commerce. “These proposals will unnecessarily increase costs on California employers that will likely lead to a loss of jobs.”

“Job Killer” Bills: 93 percent defeated since 1997

Although organized labor and environmental groups provide major financial and grassroots support to legislative Democrats, they’ve largely been unsuccessful in passing bills branded “job killers” by CalChamber.

Since 1997, the not-for-profit business advocacy group has identified 631 bills as “job killers,” of which only 46 have made their way into becoming state law. That’s a 93 percent success rate for the organization that represents 13,000 members, including Fortune 500 companies such as Microsoft and Walt Disney.

The chamber’s success has remained constant under both Republican and Democratic governors. During the past decade, 357 bills have been dubbed job killers with just 14 becoming law. It’s also scored major legislative victories while Democrats maintained a super-majority in both houses of the legislature.

Gov. Jerry Brown delivers for CalChamber

And the chamber’s best years have come with Jerry Brown in the governor’s mansion.

“Over the past four years, the Chamber has marked 129 bills as job killers. Only 8 of these measures have been signed into law,” points out Joel Fox, publisher of Fox and Hounds Daily, the state’s leading business blog.

Fox also credits the chamber’s success at defeating “job killer” bills with the state’s improving economic climate. California’s unemployment rate has dropped from 8 percent in February 2014 to 6.7 percent in February 2015. According to the state’s Employment Development Department, California added nearly a half-million jobs, a year-over-year increase of 3.1 percent.

Although California’s unemployment rate is higher than the national average of 5.5 percent, the state has been the country’s most improved economy. In February, the Golden State added 29,400 jobs, the nation’s best over-the-month increase, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“If many of the defeated bills passed,” Fox asks, “would California’s job creation number be so strong?”

“Part of the credit for this success goes to the California Chamber of Commerce’s effort to rally against bills that would hinder job creation and hurt the economy,” he said.

So, what’s included in this year’s list of “job killer” bills?

2015 “Job Killer” Bills

AB357 (David Chiu, D-San Francisco): Requires retailers and restaurants to give employees at least two-weeks’ notice for their work schedule.

SB3 (Mark Leno, D-San Francisco): Increases the minimum wage by $3.00 over the next two and a half years and imposes future automatic increases tied to inflation.

SB406 (Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara): Eliminates the small business exemption from the state’s family and medical leave law.

SB350 (Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles): Forces the state by 2030 to reduce petroleum use by 50 percent, increase the current Renewable Portfolio Standard to 50 percent and increase energy efficiency in buildings by 50 percent.

SB684 (Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley): Raises taxes on publicly-held corporations and financial institutions.

ACA 4 (Jim Frazier, D-Oakley): Lowers the vote threshold from two-thirds to 55 percent for new local tax measures.

SCA 5 (Hancock): Lowers the vote threshold from two-thirds to 55 percent for new local tax measures.

AB356 (Das Williams, D-Santa Barbara): Imposes new regulations and water monitoring restrictions on oil and gas drilling projects.

AB1490 (Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood): Imposes a de facto ban on oil fracking and oil well stimulation activities by halting any activity after a nearby earthquake of a magnitude 2.0 or higher.

SB32 (Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills): Raises California’s greenhouse gas emissions limits to 80 percent below the 1990 level by 2050 and gives the State Air Resources Board authority to set interim standards for 2030 and 2040.

SB546 (Leno): Requires health insurance companies to comply with new regulations before increasing their premiums.

AB359 (Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego): Bans grocery stores from laying off workers during a transfer in store ownership.

SB576 (Leno): Prevents mobile applications from collecting or sharing a user’s location data without consent.

AB244 (Susan Talamantes Eggman, D-Stockton): Makes changes to the state’s foreclosure rules with respect to successor in interest.

AB465 (Roger Hernández, D-Baldwin Park): Prevents workers and employers from reaching agreements that include any waiver of labor protections as a condition of employment.

SB203 (Bill Monning, D-Carmel): Singles out sodas and some sugar-added drinks for health warning labels, but excludes other unhealthy beverages.

The California Employment Development Department today announced unemployment dropped to 6.9 percent in February, down from 7.1 percent in Dec. 2014; and down more than a point from the 8.1 percent of Jan. 2014.

It also found “nonfarm payroll jobs increased by 67,300 during the month for a total gain of 1,806,700 jobs since the recovery began in February 2010.”

But a slight caution comes from the California Composite of Consumer Sentiment released yesterday by the A. Gary Anderson Center for Economic Research at Chapman University. Any score above 100 is considered positive. The Index dropped to 101.2 in the First Quarter of 2015 from 108.9 in the Third Quarter of 2014.

The Third Quarter reading was “a 10-year high since 2004,” Anderson Center Director Esmael Adibi told CalWatchdog.com. “Now we’re seeing a little dip. But more people still are optimistic than pessimistic.”

He said the drop in sentiment “was kind of puzzling” in the midst of generally positive news. The survey asks only if things are better or worse, and doesn’t ask reasons.

But Adibi surmises the reason is the recent spike in gas prices has people jumpy. In a month, prices in the state have gone up $1 a gallon.

“Overall I’m not seeing too much into the drop,” he said. “The last four quarters have been good. There’s steady job growth going on. Home prices are up, making homeowners happy. The stock market is up, bringing the ‘wealth effect'” — in which stock owners spend some of their profits on consumer goods. “And mortgage rates are helping financing.”

U.S. unemployment

The California improvement followed the overall U.S. unemployment rate. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics today reported:

“Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 295,000 in February, and the unemployment rate edged down to 5.5 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in food services and drinking places, professional and business services, construction, health care, and in transportation and warehousing. Employment in mining was down over the month.”

It was the best showing since mid-2008, before the financial crisis struck in September that year.

But disappointing was wage growth. Reported the New York Times, “Last month, wages rose just 0.1 percent, according to the Labor Department, a disappointment coming off an increase of 0.5 percent in January.”

Forecast

Along with Chapman President Jim Doti, every December and June Adibi delivers a forecast of the state and national economies. Adibi gave CalWatchdog.com a glimpse into what the next June forecast will look like — assuming there are no unforeseen events, he cautioned, such as a major war.

Adibi said overall U.S. jobs growth was “steady, but not strong.” So that’s another caution.

He added that lower oil prices have helped the overall European economy, which is much more dependent on imports than the American economy.

“The main worries are with other countries. But we think Europe will do better — except for Greece,” which remains near insolvency. “German exports are strong thanks to the weaker euro, which also helps European tourism.”

In addition to the Chapman survey of California consumer sentiment, Adibi pointed to the similar survey of all America by the University of Michigan. Released Feb. 27, it found:

“The small overall decline from January still left consumer confidence at the highest levels in eight years. It is hard not to attribute the small February decline to the temporary impact of the harsh weather, as declines that occurred in the Northeast and Midwest were triple the average loss, while Southern residents grew more optimistic.”

At least most Californians don’t have to put up with all that snow.

Summing up, Adibi said, “Overall we’re positive for stronger growth.”

But a glance to the future — and behind the numbers — shows the state economy faces numerous question marks. Among the 50 states on the new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, California now is second-worst, behind only Mississippi at 7.2 percent. “Better than Mississippi!” would not make a great slogan.

Since the Great Recession, Nevada and Rhode Island have suffered unemployment even worse than California’s. But for December, both posted 6.8 percent jobless rates.

Not to mention the rate of California’s top competitor: Texas at 4.6 percent.

There also are some worrisome details about California. “Most of the December 0.2 percentage-point drop was from more people leaving the group that is ‘actively seeking work,'” Richard Rider told CalWatchdog.com; he’s the chairman of San Diego Taxfighters. “We can see this in the fact that during this rather dramatic drop, only 700 net new jobs were created in a state of over 38,800,000 people.”

He added that today more people than in the past are working part-time, “yet we count anyone working as little as 1 hour a week as ’employed.'”

He pointed to a new report from Advisor Perspectives, a publication for investment advisors. Looking at national numbers provided by the BLS, it found:

“The Labor Department has been collecting this since 1968, a time when only 13.5 percent of U.S. employees were part-timers. That number peaked at 20.1 percent in January 2010. The latest data point, approaching five years later, is only modestly lower at 18.7 percent last month. If the pre-recession percentage is a recovery target, we still have a long way to go.”

Competition

Again looking to the future, California is facing increasing competition for businesses and jobs from other states. Writing yesterday in the Wall Street Journal, Heritage Foundation Chief Economist Stephen Moore looked at the trend for tax cutting:

“as many as 20 Republican governors are moving forward with their own pro-growth tax-relief initiatives. This is on top of the 14 states, including Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, whose 2014 tax cuts will take effect this year.”

So that’s 34 states cutting taxes — even as California continues under the the $7 billion tax increase of Proposition 30, which voters passed in 2012. It boosted the state’s top income tax rate to 13.3 percent, the highest of any state.

Even depressed Mississippi is getting into the act. Reported Mississippi Public Broadcasting on Jan. 22, “Governor Phil Bryant is calling for a tax cut for thousands Mississippi families. Bryant addressed a joint session of the Mississippi Legislature last night for his state of the state address.”

Rider, who has been analyzing California tax policy for decades, gave his perspective. “States are cutting taxes because they understand economic competition,” he said. “The evidence is overwhelming that lower taxes and more reasonable regulation results in more jobs and a more prosperous state. California leadership is still in denial of this Economics 101 reality.”

He also pointed to a fact sheet he compiled of state per-capita GDP numbers. California’s nominal number in 2012 was 18th highest of the 50 states and D.C., at $46,029 per capita.

But when cost-of-living is taken into account, it dropped to 39th, at $36,215.

Blue-state tax cuts

Moore points out that even Blue States are getting into the tax-cutting act: “In Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts — three blue states that elected Republican governors in November — tax rates are likely to fall to provide juice and jobs for local economies.”

If Mississippi cuts taxes and unemployment drops fast, California could be left holding the bag of the worst unemployment rate among the states.

Rider believes things will change in California only after a crisis. “Meaningful reform will come only out of necessity, not from some change of heart,” he said. “It will take years before we reach that point — we are not in a collapse — just a stately decline.”

While quarterly economic growth numbers showed the fastest growth rate in a decade and a recent Gallup poll found 36 percent of respondents said it was a good time to find a job, compared to just 30 percent a month ago, a report on California from researchers at the Public Policy Institute pointed out some troubling numbers on the employment front.

While California’s unemployment rate dropped from 8.4 percent to 7.2 percent over the past year, PPIC researchers Monica Bandy and Sarah Bohn note the unemployment rate does not account for California adults who are underemployed, working part-time when they prefer full time employment, and those who have stopped looking for work — discouraged because they lack skills for the jobs available or cannot find jobs.

The researchers suggest that, when these areas are considered, California’s un- and under-employment number is actually 15.4 percent, or 8.2 percentage points above the official unemployment rate.

According to the blog post Bandy and Bohn wrote for the PPIC site:

“While California’s economy is improving, the recovery has not been strong or fast enough to keep up with the growth in California’s working-age population. Additionally, the recovery has been uneven across sectors and metro areas, and the unemployment rate is still higher than it was before the recession began. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, California has the third-highest unemployment rate in the nation — only Mississippi and the District of Columbia have higher rates. In numerical terms, 1.35 million Californians are looking for work — and more than 35% of them have been looking for at least six months.”

Understanding the full situation of the job market and those who want to work is important to move the legislature toward reducing barriers to job creation in the Golden State.

Unemployment dropped to 7.3 percent in September, down from 8.8 percent a year ago.

Except the national rate is 5.9 percent. So California clearly is just following the national recovery, slight as it is — albeit not as strongly. We’re still 1.4 percentage points higher than the national rate.

And California still is at sixth worst, tied with Michigan and Tennessee. We’re nowhere near North Dakota, the best state, at 2.8 percent.

Of course, they have a shale-oil boom at the Bakken Formation.

But California has the Monterey Shale deposits, which a 2013 USC study showed would, if developed, grow the state GDP could  by as much as 14 percent; with state revenues increasing by 10 percent.

Brown did sign a bill allowing limited extra energy development. But we haven’t seen much from that yet.

Beside which, state taxes and regulations remain the highest in the nation. You can’t create more jobs if you keep killing them.

But in much of the rest of the state, stagnation still is the order of the day. That’s better than when Brown took over four years ago, so he has that going for him. But it’s still not the robust recovery the state needs.

The Orange County Register reported:

Job growth in Los Angeles and Orange counties slowed markedly last month [July], while California as a whole continued to outpace the nation.

In July, Los Angeles County counted 69,200 more jobs than it had a year earlier, an increase of only 1.7 percent, according to state employment officials.

Orange County’s payrolls, which grew rapidly last year, ticked up only 1.6 percent in July over the year before, adding 22,500 positions.

“The pace is slowing,” said Chapman University economist Esmael Adibi. “That is worrisome if it continues.”

July was the first month of the new state $9 minimum wage, up from $8. That could not have helped. We’ll see how much it digs in over the coming months. and it goes to $10 in 2016.

Unemployment figures for July:

• U.S. 6.2 percent;
• California 7.4 percent (unchanged from June);
• L.A. County 8.1 percent (unchanged).

A decent recovery drops unemployment below 5 percent. Brown likely will cruise to re-election. But opponent Neel Kashkari might score some votes with his campaign message that the recovery, such as it is, has left a lot of people behind.

Well, you should have joined the public sector and lived off those who actually produce something. July 1 saw a pay raise for state employees.

And of course, that’s in addition to the massive perks and pensions they also get. At age 52, many government workers retire in luxury with 90 percent pensions based on their last year’s generous pay.

Meanwhile, you’re slaving away to pay for everything.

Oh, and guess what? The economy is “improving” and unemployment is “decreasing” mainly because more government workers are being hired. The Wall Street Journal reported:

The recent hiring spurt—one of the best stretches since the late 1990s—has gotten a surprising lift by a major sector: government.

In June, all levels of government added a seasonally adjusted 26,000 employees. That gain outpaced the manufacturing and construction sectors — combined. Rising government employment not only adds to the total hiring figure, it also represents growth in a relatively well-paying field.

The Declaration of Independence insisted on America splitting from England because it charged of King George III, “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.”

But that’s just what “our” government now does to us now. And to think, the Revolution started because of some minor taxes on tea and stamps.