U.S. employers continued hiring new workers at a brisk pace last month, providing fresh evidence that the overall economy remains sturdy, but the new data showed that California is still looking like an underachiever. California’s job growth has been trailing the national curve all year, and even though it made up some ground in January, the Golden State still lags behind when it comes to adding new jobs. The state’s unemployment rate also continued a months-long run of exceeding the national average by more than a full percentage point. California’s most recent unemployment rate, for January, was 5.2%.
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Even with the burst of hiring in January, only 7.7% of the nearly 3 million nationwide jobs created over the prior 12 months have been in California, which accounts for about 11.5% of the country’s labor force.Meanwhile, California’s share of the unemployed in the U.S. was 16.6%. And in recent weeks, about one-fifth of all jobless claims filed nationally have come from workers in California.
There is a pattern.
- People are voting with their feet. Between 2020 and 2022, the Census reports, California had a net population loss of 508,903.
- When the Census takes housing costs into account, California has the highest poverty rate of the 50 states, at 13.2 percent. See the Census poverty report at page 47.
- California’s homeless rate is 44 per 10,000 v. Florida’s 12 per 10,000..
- The Tax Foundation’s State Business Tax Climate Index ranks California 48th of the 50 states.
- When Consumer Affairs ranked states by the condition of their roads, California was the fourth-worst.
- On education, US News ranks California in 20th place.