by jpitney | Jun 10, 2024 | California Politics, Economic Policy
Manfred Keil and Ethan Sattley at The Sun: California has the highest state unemployment rate, at 5.3%, beating Nevada by 0.2 percentage points. South Dakota is in first place with 2.0%. While we do not see you packing your bags for a move to the Badlands or even a...
by jpitney | May 23, 2024 | California Politics, Economic Policy, Housing
Andrew Khouri at LAT: Want a house in California? It’ll likely cost you over $900,000. The statewide median sales price for a previously owned single-family house surpassed $900,000 for the first time in April, a shocking figure that underscores just how unaffordable...
by jpitney | May 20, 2024 | Congress, Economic Policy, Uncategorized
Don Wolfensberger, “Budget Act dead at 50 — or is it incognito?,” The Hill, May 16, 2024. In 30 of the last 49 years, Congress has not met the April 15 deadline for approving a budget resolution. The last time Congress completed action on all 12 appropriations by Oct....
by jpitney | May 19, 2024 | California Politics, Economic Policy
Stephanie Breijo at LAT: Federal minimum wage remains at $7.25 per hour, as it has for years, but in 2024, 25 states either saw their minimum wage increase or expect to increase it by the end of the year. This includes California, which in January bumped its hourly...
by jpitney | May 18, 2024 | California Politics, Economic Policy
Don Lee at LAT: California posted another month of anemic job growth in April, keeping the state’s unemployment rate the highest in the country, 5.3%, the government reported Friday. Statewide, employers added a net of just 5,200 jobs in April, down from 18,200 in...
by jpitney | May 11, 2024 | Economic Policy
William A. Mundell, Founder and Chairman of Work to Own, and Chairman of Neurosphere Entertainment, at Forbes: In his last published work, John Steinbeck, that great chronicler of the working class, mused that Americans never embraced socialism because the poor...