California adds just 5,500 jobs in November; unemployment rate declines to 5.7%

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.

But the state unemployment rate continued its five-year-long decline, dropping to 5.7% in November, the lowest in eight years. The U.S. unemployment rate is 5%.

November's tepid job increases were the lowest one-month jump in more than four years, and far less than the 40,600 job gains the state posted in October.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

But economists cautioned against reading too much into monthly swings in the employment data, which often are subject to revisions. September's numbers, for example, were revised upward from 8,200 positions to 21,100 jobs.

“We're reading the economy on the fly,” said Robert Kleinhenz, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. “That's just the nature of these economic statistics.”

Despite the lackluster November, California's payroll employment grew 2.6% over last year, faster than all but six other states and better than the national rate of 1.9%.

Construction continued to be the leading growth sector, as the industry continues to rebound from the housing crash. The high-paying professional and technical services industry — including lawyers, accountants, architects and engineers — also recorded some of the fastest job growth in the state.

The only industries to post losses were mining and logging, along with manufacturing and financial services.

The state unemployment rate is down significantly from a year ago, when it stood at 7.2%. The jobless rate is often criticized as an incomplete economic indicator because it doesn't count discouraged job seekers who have dropped out of the labor force.

Some of those who stopped seeking employment may be returning to the labor force, which has expanded over the last year even as unemployment fell. That suggests newly returned job seekers may be finding success.

Join the conversation on Facebook >>

Economists say job growth tends to taper off as an economic expansion progresses. The U.S. is technically in the seventh year of expansion.

Although California's economic growth has outperformed the nation, there are still reasons for many people to believe their fortunes have not improved.

The gap between high and low earners is more pronounced in California because wages for middle-income earners have fallen.

Since 2006, median wages have declined 6.2% in California, compared with 1.9% for the U.S. overall, according to the California Budget & Policy Center.

California's economy is booming, so why is it No. 1 in poverty?

And while the share of part-time workers has declined since the depths of the Great Recession, that segment of the workforce is still larger than in the mid-2000s. About 5.9% of workers in California are considered part-time for economic reasons — meaning that they are unable to find full-time work.

That's down from 9.6% of the workforce in 2010, but still higher than when the economy last peaked in 2006.

“We don't want to miss the point that we are in one of the better times, employment-wise, in the last 40 years in California,” said Michael Bernick, a former director of the California Employment Development Department. “But at the same time, these numbers don't represent a lot of the instability: the part-time, contingent nature of the evolving labor market.”

Via Chris Kirkham, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-california-jobs-20151218-story.html

Poverty Hitting One in Six Californians

The economic recovery in California has not reached a sizable percentage of the population, with more than 16% of Californians living in poverty, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the California Budget and Policy Center.

In most California counties, the poverty rate increased from 2007 to 2014. Of the 40 California counties with available data, 32 had higher poverty rates last year than they did in 2007 before the state's recession began, the study said.

The California Budget and Policy Center is a not-for-profit that conducts independent, nonpartisan budget analysis.

"Millions of Californians continue to struggle to meet their basic needs, even after several years of steady job gains," the study said. "Poverty remained widespread even though the state's unemployment rate declined from a high of 12.2% in 2010 to 7.5% in 2014."

The federal poverty line is about $19,000 for a family of three. The overall rate fell slightly between 2012 and 2014 -- by 0.6% -- but the 2014 level of 16.4% is a full 4 percentage points higher than it was in 2007.

The study highlighted the differences between counties:

• Not only was the poverty rate higher in 32 of the 40 counties with available data from 2007 to 2014, but there was no statistically significant difference in poverty rates in the other 8 counties;
• In Lake County, the poverty rate rose to 25.9% of the population. In Kings County, 26.6% live in poverty;
• In Lake, Kings and San Bernardino counties, the poverty rate jumped by more than 8 percentage points from 2007 to 2014; and
• In 15 other counties, poverty rates in 2014 were 4 to 8 percentage points higher than in 2007. Most of those counties are in the Central Valley and in the Sacramento region.

"Many factors could contribute to the uneven recovery across California's counties," fact sheet author Alissa Anderson wrote. "These include differences in the availability of well-paying jobs and/or of sufficient work hours, as well as changes in county demographics, such as whether large numbers of people who struggle to get by move into a county."

By David Gorn
Via http://www.californiahealthline.org/capitol-desk/2015/12/poverty-hitting-one-in-six-californians

U of R students study employment fairness for convicted criminals

When Manmit Dhami was in her sophomore year attending the University of Redlands she reluctantly took Jennifer Tilton’s Race and Criminal Justice class to satisfy an ethic studies requirement.

That class changed her.

“I feel so empowered now,” said Dhami, now a junior. “I feel like I’m a part of a community. I feel like what I’m doing matters. I’m changing people’s lives in positive ways.”

Dhami and the rest of her class spent last year researching implementation of Assembly Bill 218 — or “the Ban the Box initiative,” passed in July, 2014, which gives people convicted of a crime more access to public jobs from the city, county and state level.

But her classmates’ research found that the Inland area is not implementing the rule change. Some cities in Riverside and San Bernardino counties didn’t even know the law existed according to Tilton, who led the study.

They will present “report cards” at a town hall meeting, and launch the The IE Fair Chance Coalition today from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the San Bernardino Diocese, 1201 E. Highland Ave. in San Bernardino. The group is made up of U of R students and faculty and community leaders, including Time for Change Foundation, Riverside All of Us or None, Starting Over Inc., Center for Employment Opportunities, IE Concerned African American Churches, Inland Congregations United for Change, California Partnership and the ACLU of Southern California.

The U of R report that several human resource policies are not written or sufficiently detailed to guarantee fair or consistent evaluation of criminal records in the hiring process. They say application language often discourages people with criminal records from applying and does not clearly state a commitment to fair hiring.

Riverside County received the highest grade, with a B. Lake Elsinore, Fontana, Highland and San Bernardino County all received Ds. The grades measured the existing barriers to fair hiring and provided departments with a roadmap for change.

“Until you work in partnership with the community, they don’t understand substantial problems around them or understand how to actually change policies,” said Tilton. “They feel powerless. Connecting them with community leaders doing the changes they want to see is the first step.”

Junior Raquel Anakalea was one of the students who felt powerless.

“My dad has been in and out of prison my whole life,” said Anakalea. “I’m not close to him because he’s been in and out of my life.”

She was raised by her mom, aunt and grandmother. It was hard on them because he was unable to get employed because of his criminal background. Even now he isn’t able to help her pay for her tuition, books or housing.

“I have issues that most people on this campus just don’t have to face,” said Anakalea. “Jobs, that’s the biggest most obvious way to end the cycle of recidivism.”

Senior Jewel Patterson has lived in San Bernardino County her whole life and has members in her family who are unable to find good public jobs because of their criminal background. She was part of the first class to work on the project. She conducted interviews with people who had served time.

“We got stories from formerly incarcerated people,” said Patterson. “We wanted to put a face on the issue.”

The students spent two years researching HR departments. In addition to the interviews they called HR departments, followed up with elected officials poured through public policy documents and spent hours on phones with lawyers. Each of the women has been subsequently volunteering with nonprofits involved in criminal justice and launching IE Fair Chance Coalition to give a voice to people who have been discriminated against because of their criminal background.

This was Tilton’s goal all along, to connect students to issues affecting the community and get them to be agents of change.

“I wanted them to do some research useful in the community to understand how public policies played out in the Inland Empire,” said Tilton. “I’m so proud of the work they have done. They’re having a tangible positive impact in the community. The work they’re doing is giving HR departments a roadmap to better implement this law.”

Tilton also wanted to change stigmas around people with criminal records.

Dhami’s research focused on the city of San Bernardino. But that’s not the biggest impact the class had. Her older sister has been incarcerated twice. After her sister got out of jail her family treated her differently, and so did Dhami.

“Oh I totally had a stigma and that hurt my relationship with her. I was like, oh yeah she’s a criminal, she wasn’t my big sister anymore. These stigmas hurt people and hurt families. I reconnected with my sister. She saw the work I did on the campaign on Facebook and was proud.



“It’s become so much more than a class. The people who we worked with they had a positive impact on my life too.”

Los Angeles Record Change & Resource Fair

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2015

11:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Exposition Park

Los Angeles, CA 90037

NOT JUST IN FERGUSON

A recent Department of Justice report found that courts and law enforcement in Ferguson, Missouri, are systematically and purposefully taking money from the pockets of poor people—disproportionately from black people—to put into court coffers. The context may be different in California, but many of the practices are chillingly similar. As a result, over four million Californians do not have valid driver’s licenses because they cannot afford to pay traffic fines and fees. These suspensions make it harder for people to get and keep jobs, further impeding their ability to pay their debt. They harm credit ratings. They raise public safety concerns. Ultimately they keep people in long cycles of poverty that are difficult, if not impossible to overcome. This report highlights the growing trend of license suspensions, how the problem happens, the impact on families and communities, and what can and should be done about it. Click here to read the full report.

Via: http://www.anewwayoflife.org/category/blog/

JOBS: Amazon to add 1,000 more jobs

Amazon has announced it will create 1,000 more jobs for its Inland Southern California fulfillment centers.

In addition to 1,000 jobs announced earlier this month, takes the hiring roster to 2,000.

Mike Lee, the community and economic development director for Moreno Valley, says he hasn’t seen this many job

s created in such a short amount of time, ever. “This is huge for our region,” Lee said.

Amazon’s announcement was made at the Moreno Valley City Conference & Recreation Center. The hiring is part of a nationwide recruitment effort by Amazon.

“What we heard was Amazon was impressed with the quality of candidates they are getting from the region,” Lee said.

Amazon, in a statement issued Wednesday by spokeswoman Ashley Robinson, said the firm is proud to continue to hire for 1,000 more newly created permanent, hourly positions at the Inland Empire fulfillment centers in Moreno Valley, Redlands and San Bernardino.

Tuesday, the company held a hiring event with about 400 applicants in Moreno Valley, and each received a contingent offer of employment at facilities there, Robinson said.

Asked to comment on the caliber of the candidates on the whole, Robinson said, “We have found an enthusiastic, dedicated and customer-obsessed workforce in the Inland Empire.”

Moreno Valley Mayor Jesse Molina called the recruitment announcement terrific news.

“Anytime a business says that it is hiring this many people it is a big deal,” Molina said. “When it’s coupled with community investment, it means all that much more.”

Thomas J. Goldsby, a business and logistics professor at Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University, said in a Monday symposium for forecasters at Riverside Convention Center that “Amazon is expanding at a pace that is making Wal-Mart very, very nervous.”

Amazon has created thousands of full-time jobs in the Inland region since the first California facility opened in San Bernardino in 2012, Moreno Valley city officials said. Fulfillment centers in Redlands and Moreno Valley began shipping customer orders in 2014.

Amazon is making the news almost daily with innovations like rapid delivery and mail drops with drones, Goldsby said.

Tuesday’s hiring event was an offshoot of the Hire MoVal program and coordinated efforts with Riverside County Workforce Development Agency. Communication networks were shared. Amazon recruitment opportunities were publicized to Moreno Valley businesses.

As an added benefit to Amazon, the company qualifies for a 2 percent discount on electrical rates under the Hire MoVal program if at least 20 percent of the workforce hails from Moreno Valley. The discount rises to 4 percent if the workforce percentage is at least 40 percent.

Fielding Buck contributed to this report.

Via: http://www.pe.com/articles/amazon-771361-moreno-valley.html

Senate passes minimum wage boost for California

As labor unions lead a nationwide push for a higher minimum wage, the California Senate on Monday approved raising the state’s required hourly rate to $11 in 2016 and $13 in 2017.

Under Senate Bill 3, which passed by a vote of 23-15, California’s minimum wage would also begin increasing annually in 2019 based on inflation. The measure heads next to the Assembly.

“The president of the United States has defined income inequality as the defining challenge of our time,” said Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who authored the measure. “Wages are growing at the slowest rate relative to corporate profits in the history of the United States of America.

“We must do more to address this, and we can.”

Leno pursued a similar minimum wage increase last year that passed the Senate but failed in an Assembly committee.

Since then, several major cities have raised their wage floor, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, which will both reach $15 per hour in the next few years. After joining striking fast-food workers in protest, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said last November he would also explore raising the city’s minimum wage above California’s $9-per-hour rate.

Introducing SB 3, Leno noted that a minimum wage of $13 per hour would equate to about $26,000 per year, just above the federal poverty line. He tried to appeal to Senate Republicans, making the argument that higher wages would lead to greater consumer spending and drive the economy.

“There are thought leaders on the conservative right who support increasing the minimum wage,” Leno said. “We taxpayers subsidize employers who pay sub-poverty wages,” because those workers get public assistance for housing, food and health care.

None were convinced, and they were joined by Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, in voting no on the bill.

“It’s a capitalistic society,” said Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa. “We need to honor the work of those that are creating the jobs, that are paying the taxes ... With a minimum wage increase, you are attacking businesspeople who are subsidizing this state and this nation.”

The California Chamber of Commerce placed SB 3 high on its annual list of “job killers,” bills that the powerful business lobby argues would have a negative economic impact on the state, and their argument was echoed during Monday’s debate.

“Let’s work together to find real solutions to create jobs and lift people out of poverty,” said Sen. Jeff Stone, R-Temecula, “not kill jobs, as this measure would unfortunately do.”

Two other moderate Democrats – Sens. Steve Glazer of Orinda and Cathleen Galgiani of Stockton – left the room during the vote. But the remainder of the caucus carried the bill, speaking passionately about the difficulty that many workers face in supporting their families on low wages.

“There is not honor in going out and working hard and then you got to go beg for” help, said Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Los Angeles. “When you get out there and get a job, you should have enough money to feed your family. You should have enough money to pay for the roof over your head and decent conditions.”

“The problem is, we want to pick and choose the work that we value,” added Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, the measure’s co-author. “All work has value.”

Via: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article22841253.html#storylink=cpy

The President Proposes to Make Community College Free for Responsible Students for 2 Years

David Hudson

January 08, 2015 
06:16 PM EST

This month, the President unveiled a new proposal: Make two years of community college free for responsible students across America.

In our growing global economy, Americans need to have more knowledge and more skills to compete -- by 2020, an estimated 35 percent of job openings will require at least a bachelor's degree, and 30 percent will require some college or an associate's degree. Students should be able to get the knowledge and the skills they need without taking on decades' worth of student debt.

The numbers:

If all 50 states choose to implement the President's new community college proposal, it could:
Save a full-time community college student $3,800 in tuition per year on average
Benefit roughly 9 million students each year

Under President Obama's new proposal, students would be able to earn the first half of a bachelor's degree, or earn the technical skills needed in the workforce -- all at no cost to them.

The requirements:

What students have to do: Students must attend community college at least half-time, maintain a 2.5 GPA, and make steady progress toward completing their program.
What community colleges have to do: Community colleges will be expected to offer programs that are either 1) academic programs that fully transfer credits to local public four-year colleges and universities, or 2) occupational training programs with high graduation rates and lead to in-demand degrees and certificates. Community colleges must also adopt promising and evidence-based institutional reforms to improve student outcomes.
What the federal government has to do: Federal funding will cover three-quarters of the average cost of community college. Participating states will be expected to contribute the remaining funds necessary to eliminate the tuition for eligible students.

Expanding technical training programs:

President Obama also proposed the new American Technical Training Fund, which will expand innovative, high-quality technical training programs across the country. Specifically, the fund will award programs that:

• Have strong employer partnerships and include work-based learning opportunities
• Provide accelerated training
• Accommodate part-time work

Read the full fact sheet of the President's proposal. 

via: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/01/08/president-proposes-make-community-college-free-responsible-students-2-years

A Fair Chance

Our nation is finally getting “smart on crime” after decades of policies like the War on Drugs. Today, we’re a nation where almost one in three adults—that’s 70 million people—has an arrest or conviction record.

That record has become a scarlet letter for job-seekers who can’t even get their foot in the door for an interview. Local communities have responded by adopting fair-chance hiring laws to ensure that people with records aren’t locked out of employment.

The movement is growing fast. More than 100 cities, counties, and states have adopted fair-chance hiring policies—42 in the past year alone. And that’s paving the way for action at the federal level. Here's how you can help.

Please SIGN THIS PETITION urging President Obama to take executive action to create a federal fair-chance hiring policy that covers federal agencies and contractors. There’s strong bipartisan support for opening up opportunity for millions of Americans unfairly shut out from the job market.

NELP’s new report, Advancing a Federal Fair-Chance Hiring Agenda, makes the case for reform and lays out a detailed plan. Read more about it in the Washington Post.

Over the coming months, NELP and our partners in this effort, All of Us or None and the PICO National Network, will be working to build pressure for presidential executive action, so that everyone has a fair chance at federal agency and contractor jobs. Thanks for your support!

—Maurice, Michelle, and the NELP team

SB 391 Advances Further Than Any Other CA Housing Trust Fund Bill

From Campaign Co-Chairs Shamus Roller and Ray Pearl

On behalf of SB 391's co-sponsors -- Housing California and the California Housing Consortium -- we would like to congratulate all of you on an amazing job advocating for homes and jobs for Californians. To date, the California Homes and Jobs Act (SB 391) has advanced further than any bill to fund the state housing trust fund since the trust fund was permanently established in 1988.  Given the recent suspension of three Senators who voted yes on SB 391 (and whose votes would be needed again to approve amendments made in the Assembly), SB 391 is unlikely to advance this year in its current form.  While this news is disappointing, we remain strongly positioned to build upon our successes from this year and come back to win an ongoing source of state investment in homes and jobs. Even if we are successful with some of the exciting proposals currently in the Legislature (see below), California needs a statewide, flexible source of funding like SB 391 would provide.       Video Message to SB 391 Supporters from Senator Mark DeSaulnier The author of SB 391, Senator Mark DeSaulnier, recorded this special message for all of you who dedicated time and energy to this important campaign, reinforcing that you've done a fantastic job and our work is not over. Click here to watch Senator DeSaulnier's video.

California's employment picture: Good news and bad news

The good news is that with a recent surge of employment, California has regained virtually all of the million-plus jobs it lost during what many call the Great Recession.

The Employment Development Department reported Friday that California's unemployment rate, which hit a high of 12.4 percent in 2010, dropped to 8 percent in February. California had added 336,000 non-agricultural jobs in the previous 12 months.

The bad news is that despite regaining those lost jobs, California still has one of the nation's highest jobless rates, surpassed by only a handful of other states, and it's still well above the national average of 6.7 percent.

How can that be?

It's because over more than seven years of economic decline and recovery, California's population has grown and therefore so has its potential workforce, and the unemployment rate is the percentage of thelabor force that doesn't have jobs.

California's lowest unemployment rate in recent history was 4.8 percent for a few months in late 2006, when about 850,000 of the state's 17.8 million available workers were unemployed.

In the 7-1/2 years since then, California's labor force has grown by 800,000-plus to 18.6 million but the state has only 193,000 more people employed, leaving 640,000 more Californians without jobs than there were in 2006. Hence, with 1.5 million unemployed, the state has a much-higher unemployment rate now than it did then.

Two other factors also round out California's employment picture, and undercut somewhat the positive news of recent job gains.

One is labor force participation - the percentage of Californians of working age who either are working or seeking work. That's just 62.2 percent, the lowest rate in more than three decades, according to EDD. Were more Californians between the ages of 16 and 64 to join the labor force and seek work, the state's unemployment rate would be higher.

The second is what the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics calls "U-6" - the percentage of the labor force that's not only unemployed, but involuntarily working part-time or "marginally attached" to the labor force. BLS calls it "labor underutilization."

For 2013, California had the nation's second highest U-6 rate, 17.3 percent. And in Los Angeles County,which has more than a quarter of the state's population, it was 19.8 percent.

PHOTO: A group meets during a workshop for unemployed people at a community center in Corona, Calif., Aug. 7, 2012. The New York Times/Monica Almeida

Categories: California by the Numbers

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2014/03/californias-employment-picture-good-news-and-bad-news.html#storylink=cpy

Economist: Job growth in Inland Empire returning to normal

Businesses are hiring, and the Inland Empire is starting to see it — in the numbers anyway.

The region saw the net creation of about 46,800 new jobs in 2013 — a statistic Inland Empire economist John Husing said is a return to normalcy after the economic downturn of the past few years.

“What normally has occurred in the Inland Empire is, if you go back over the last 10 years and you look at growth, 46,000 is a slightly above-average number for us,” Husing said. “We’ve been as high as 60,000 but 46,000 is really strong. So it means that 2013 was an extraordinarily strong year, and it means that the whole economy has reached the point where it shifted gears from being struggling to starting to act more normally.”

The figure, Husing said, is based on a revision by the California Economic Development Department released on Friday. An earlier EDD estimate had net job growth in the Inland Empire for the past year at about 14,000 jobs, though the figure was presented prior to new calculations from data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Husing said.

“The conversations I’m having with people in different sectors of the Inland Empire economy are very positive,” said Paul Granillo, president and CEO of the Inland Empire Economic Partnership. “People have been reticent to invest and to hire and I think what I’m hearing is that now is the time that things have changed and that investment is necessary for them to position themselves for the next few years.”

According to Husing’s data analysis, social assistance was a sector that made the biggest gain in job growth with about 12,000 new jobs.

“That was a rather aggressive expansion of social services last year and that makes sense given the fact that unemployment tends to be rather high,” Husing said.

The revised data also marked a strong return for the construction sector with 6,700 new jobs according to a chart provided by Husing.

“Construction has been negative for the last several years,” Husing said. “That is a definite turnaround for that sector since we’re finally seeing construction taking back its traditional role as a strength for our economy.”

In an economic report keynote earlier this year, Husing said the sectors of logistics and healthcare are major driving forces of the regional economy.

According to the latest march EDD report, looking at the past year, trade, transportation, and utilities were major growth sectors, adding 9,600 more jobs. Transportation and warehousing added 4,300 jobs, retail trade was up 3,800 jobs and wholesale trade increased by 1,700 jobs over the year, according to the EDD.

Other industries that reported job gains for the year include leisure and hospitality employment with 8,600; education and health services with 6,600 jobs; and professional and business services with 6,100 jobs, according to the EDD report.

The Southern California Association of Governments, Granillo said, expect the Inland Empire population to grow from 4.3 million to 6 million by 2035.

“The economy is on an upswing and people are making investments in the employees, and looking to, in some cases, relocate to the Inland Empire, based on the fact that our economy is situated for growth,” Granillo said. “The people I’ve been talking to lately are in the professional services sector – lawyers and accountants looking to grow their footprint in the Inland Empire or to establish companies in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties.”

PHOTO: The State Economic Development Department on Friday released a jobs report for the Inland Empire - showing a surprising 46000 people were hired for new jobs - the figure is higher than an earlier report - surprising IE economist John Husing. Construction has made a strong showing in the new report.

via: http://www.sbsun.com/business/20140312/economist-job-growth-in-inland-empire-returning-to-normal

It's back to San Diego politics as usual in unusual mayoral election

SAN DIEGO — Councilman and mayoral candidate David Alvarez stood and applauded when acting Mayor Todd Gloria, in his state of the city address, proposed raising the minimum wage in San Diego beyond the scheduled statewide increases.

Councilman Kevin Faulconer, Alvarez's opponent in the Feb. 11 election, remained seated, hands folded in his lap. He later told reporters that raising the minimum wage could be bad for business and lead to elimination of jobs.

Differences over economic issues illustrate the divide between Alvarez, a Democrat, and Faulconer, a Republican, as the hurry-up campaign to find a successor to the disgraced Bob Filner enters its final stretch with prickly debates and dueling TV commercials.

Alvarez supported a 2010 measure to boost the sales tax by half a cent, an increase that then-Mayor Jerry Sanders said was vital to prevent further cuts in city services because of the city's spiraling pension payments.

Faulconer led the opposition, arguing that no taxes should be raised until the city finished reforming the pension system.

Voters agreed with Faulconer — Proposition B was defeated 62% to 38%. The appeal of smaller government is strong; nonpartisan polls suggest that Faulconer is leading Alvarez, particularly in more prosperous neighborhoods north of Interstate 8.

Alvarez supports raising a tax on developers to provide low-income housing. Faulconer opposes it — this time in alliance with Sanders — and calls it a "jobs tax." The issue appears headed for the ballot.

Faulconer supports what could be called the San Diego orthodoxy: Hold down taxes, control spending, keep labor unions in check. That philosophy guided three successful mayors in recent decades: Republican Pete Wilson (who served from 1971 to 1983), Democrat Maureen O'Connor (1986-1992) and Sanders, a Republican (2005-2012).

Alvarez, a San Diego native, said he has seen that style of civic management result in certain neighborhoods being neglected by City Hall for lack of political clout, particularly in blue-collar areas. Among the disparities, he said, is a slower response time for firetrucks in some areas because of the location of stations.

"I've witnessed how people are treated differently depending on where they live in San Diego," Alvarez said.

Asked about Wilson, O'Connor and Sanders, Alvarez said, "Those mayors neglected parts of this community. I have a different perspective."

Without agreeing to Alvarez's larger point about a past bias against some neighborhoods, Faulconer said it would not happen if he were mayor. Money for infrastructure needs such as filling potholes and fixing water lines would be spent where it's needed most, Faulconer said.

Standing in a weed-filled empty lot in a neighborhood south of I-8, Faulconer promised tax incentives "to have development right here where we need it."

Still, Faulconer stresses a concern that higher spending and taxation could prompt businesses to flee. "There's a reason why Rick Perry comes to San Diego," said Faulconer, a reference to the Texas governor's forays here to persuade firms to relocate.

Despite their differences, Alvarez and Faulconer do not represent the same philosophical chasm that separated Filner and his Republican opponent in the 2012 election, Carl DeMaio. Aided by a large turnout for the presidential election, Filner swept into office, the first Democratic mayor in 20 years.

In Filner's absence, mayoral politicking has reverted to form.

"This election marks a return to the traditional centrist pattern of San Diego politics: One candidate is center/right, the other center/left," said Steve Erie, a political science professor at UC San Diego and coauthor of "Paradise Plundered: Fiscal Crisis and Governance Failures in San Diego."

As councilman, Faulconer, 46, represents Mission Beach, Pacific Beach, Ocean Beach and Point Loma. Asked where his economic views were formed, he said at the dinner table from his father, a longtime deputy city manager in Oxnard.

Alvarez, 33, represents a district that includes Barrio Logan, Logan Heights, San Ysidro and Otay Mesa. His positions on economic issues, he said, also were shaped by his father, who was a janitor, and his mother, who worked at fast-food restaurants.

At debates, Alvarez and Faulconer poke at the source of each other's financial support. Alvarez's campaign and independent groups supporting him are largely funded by labor unions; in Faulconer's case, funding tends to come from corporate and business groups.

Carl Luna, a political science professor at San Diego Mesa College, said much of the contest has descended to a "truly uninspiring level," with an exchange of tired invectives: "You're a corporate tool!" followed by the response of "You're a union stooge!"

That "really does a disservice to San Diego voters," Luna said. "I'm tempted to say the campaign has been lackluster, but that would be an understatement."

tony.perry@latimes.com

via: http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-sd-mayor-election-20140203,0,3137640.story#ixzz2sHNVDocg

Inland Empire’s jobless rate lowest since 2008

The Inland Empire’s unemployment rate dropped to its lowest in more than five years in December to 8.9 percent, reflecting gains in retail and warehousing and raising hopes that the region’s economy is revving up again after years of bad news.

The last time the Inland Empire’s unemployment rate was at 8.9 percent was July 2008, said Michael Goss, spokesman on labor force and industry employment data for the state Employment Development Department, which released the numbers on Friday.

In the last year alone, between December 2012 and December 2013, the unemployment rate for the area encompassing San Bernardino and Riverside counties dropped from 11 percent, with total nonfarm employment increasing by 14,000 jobs and agricultural employment falling by 300 jobs. The trade, transportation and utilities sector posted the largest overall gain with the addition of 9,100 jobs, with nearly 62 percent of that growth in the retail trade.

In the region, the better jobs numbers were raising some eyebrows, and some hopes.

In Fontana, California Steel has seen steady job growth since 2010, said Brett Guge, executive vice president of finance and administration.

“We continue to gradually build up from where we were during the recession,” Guge said Friday. “We have roughly 960 permanent (employees) and another 100 contractors and temporary employees.”

The steel plant had been operating with 800-plus employees during the recession. The initial job loss was attributed mainly to attrition, and when the recession hit those vacant positions were not filled. In 2009, the company began filling those positions again, Guge said.

Now, California Steel has several job openings at any given time and the company is always looking for skilled mechanical and electrical technicians, Guge said.

“Since 2009, each year has been a little bit better than the past. We’re still not quite back to the production levels we were prior to the recession, but we’re closer,” Guge said.

In San Bernardino, business owner Pang Vithean spoke about the future with optimism.

Vithean, owner of The Flaming Grill, opened his small eatery in December in downtown, anticipating a continuing economic recovery and demand from workers at the new courthouse building to open nearby later this year.

“We expect it to improve and to grow, and hope it will grow,” Vithean said of the local economy.

Though economic recovery has been slow and marginal, Vithean remains optimistic that jobs will continue opening up for people.

“People still don’t have a lot of jobs, but we believe it’s getting better,” he said.

Since opening shop, Vithean has hired one employee at his San Bernardino restaurant, and he has hopes to hire more when the new courthouse opens down the street.

For every 50 customers each day, Vithean hopes to add two or three employees over the next several months.

Vithean’s employee, Lina Chea, said she was hired at Flaming Grill after a year without a full-time job and with a family to support.

“It was so hard for me,” she said.

Vithean wasn’t the only who has some hiring optimism. So does Amazon, which opened its giant distribution center in 2012 in San Bernardino.

Amazon expects to continue hiring this year, and recently announced plans to open a distribution center in Moreno Valley, where more than 1,000 full-time jobs will be created, Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Cheeseman said in an email Friday.

The doubling of jobs at the Amazon distribution center (700 to 1,400), from the time it opened for operations in October 2012 to the time of its grand opening in October 2013, factored into the region’s warehouse sector growth. Transportation, warehousing and utilities increased by 2,000 jobs, with an additional 1,500 jobs in the wholesale trade, according to latest Employment Development Department statistics.

While Amazon doesn’t specifically track where its employees come from, most are from the Inland Empire, Jackie Underberg, Amazon’s general manager, told this newspaper.

Broken down by county, San Bernardino County’s unemployment rate was at 8.7 percent as of December 2013, and Riverside County’s was 9.1 percent.

The data is in line with San Bernardino County figures, which show that the county’s labor force increased by 3,000 workers from July 2011 to the present, said Kelly Reenders, administrator of the county Economic Development Agency.

She said the county continues to see new businesses breaking ground and existing businesses expanding.

The Inland Empire was one of the hardest hit regions in the nation during the Great Recession, hitting a peak 14.6 percent unemployment rate in early 2010.

The data also mirror some better numbers statewide.

The EDD estimates that 17 million California residents had jobs in December, up 24,000 from November and 291,000 from December 2012.

But the jobs numbers might actually be better than what the EDD reports. The unemployment rate is derived from a federal survey of 5,500 California households while job growth is based on a survey of 42,000 businesses around the state.

Some economists note that the monthly EDD report does not capture what is actually going on in the economy and that stronger growth is reflected in quarterly data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The state’s annual revision to the jobs data will be done later this year.

And that has some taking the news with a grain of salt.

“Initially it sounds like good news, but we have to be cautious,” said Paul Granillo, president and CEO of the Inland Empire Economic Partnership, which works with the region’s largest businesses and educational institutions to improve the area’s business climate and quality of life.

He said the unemployment figures are based on a survey of residents that may not accurately reflect the number of people who are actually unemployed, given the way the questions are framed in the survey.

“It may look like it’s great news, but the reality is there are still a lot of people who still do not have jobs,” Granillo said.

Staff Writer Gregory J. Wilcox contributed to this story.

via: http://www.sbsun.com/business/20140124/inland-empires-jobless-rate-lowest-since-2008

Just five 'job killer' bills alive as legislative session nears end

The more than three dozen bills that the California Chamber of Commerce labeled as "job killers" because they would increase regulation or raise taxes have been whittled down to just five as the 2013 legislative session enters its last days.

All of the others have either been held in committee or defeated in floor votes, but technically, will still be alive for the second half of the biennial session that begins in January.

The highest-profile survivor of the original 37 bills is Assembly Bill 10, carried by Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, which would raise the state's minimum wage by $2 per hour over the next five years.

The measure was approved by the full Assembly and reached the Senate floor, awaiting another vote, after Alejo agreed to remove an automatic cost-of-living escalator.

The other four bills on the list that remain alive include:

• Senate Bill 404 by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, which would extend the Fair Employmentand Housing Act's protections against discrimination to employees who are engaged in family care duties;


• Senate Bill 365 by Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, which would place a 10-year time limit on business tax exemptions;


• Senate Bill 691 by Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, which would increase penalties for non-vehicular air quality violations; and


• Assembly Bill 769 by Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, which would repeal the net operating loss carry back deduction for business.

Seven constitutional amendments aimed at lowering the vote threshold for local government and school taxes are technically still alive, but would require two-thirds legislative votes to be placed on the 2014 ballot. Legislative leaders have put them on hold until next year.

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/08/just-five-job-killer-bills-alive-as-legislative-session-nears-end.html#storylink=cpy

Healthcare Law Threatens California Jobs, Business Group Says

California could lose more than 26,000 jobs as a result of a tax provision in the federal healthcare law, a small-business advocacy group said.

A study by the National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation found that employment in the Golden State may see a loss of from 14,322 to 26,296 jobs by 2022 because of the Health Insurance Tax provision.

The NFIB is one of the biggest opponents of the federal healthcare law and joined in the Supreme Court lawsuit challenging its constitutionality.

“Businesses in California are struggling under unprecedented costs from taxes and regulations. We need to do all that we can to increase jobs, not reduce them,” said John Kabateck, the NFIB's California director in a statement.

“This destructive tax simply must go, if we are ever to return to the thriving culture of growth and entrepreneurship that Californians once knew.”

The NFIB estimates the small business community will be hit with over $100 billion over a decade in new taxes beginning in 2014 because of the federal healthcare law.

A 2012 study by the Bay Area Council found that President Obama's Affordable Healthcare Act will create about 96,000 jobs in California.

The NFIB study is flawed, said Micah Weinberg, senior policy advisor for the Bay Area Council, adding that the council does not advocate for the Health Insurance Tax.

“We looked at the net effect of the law, taking into account both economic stimuli and drags on job growth,” Weinberg said. “Looking just at the impact of a tax in isolation is essentially meaningless.”

The increases the council forecast and the reductions by the NFIB are a small fraction of the state’s job base, Weinberg said.

via LA Times