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By Steve Levy
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About this blog: I grew up in Los Angeles and moved to the area in 1963 when I started graduate school at Stanford. Nancy and I were married in 1977 and we lived for nearly 30 years in the Duveneck school area. Our children went to Paly. We moved ...
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About this blog: I grew up in Los Angeles and moved to the area in 1963 when I started graduate school at Stanford. Nancy and I were married in 1977 and we lived for nearly 30 years in the Duveneck school area. Our children went to Paly. We moved downtown in 2006 and enjoy being able to walk to activities. I do not drive and being downtown where I work and close to the CalTrain station and downtown amenities makes my life more independent. I have worked all my life as an economist focusing on the California economy. My work centers around two main activities. The first is helping regional planning agencies such as ABAG understand their long-term growth outlook. I do this for several regional planning agencies in northern, southern and central coast California. My other main activity is studying workforce trends and policy implications both as a professional and as a volunteer member of the NOVA (Silicon Valley) and state workforce boards. The title of the blog is Invest and Innovate and that is what I believe is the imperative for our local area, region, state and nation. That includes investing in people, in infrastructure and in making our communities great places to live and work. I served on the recent Palo Alto Infrastructure Commission. I also believe that our local and state economy benefits from being a welcoming community, which mostly we are a leader in, for people of all religions, sexual preferences and places of birth.
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California Economy Update
Uploaded: May 19, 2012
A reader asked for an update on the California economy and budget. This post is about the economy and the next post is about the budget.
The overall CA economy is participating in the painfully slow natioal economic recovery. In the past year and a half CA has slightly outpaced the nation in job growth despite no upturn in housing construction and losses in local governement and education jobs.
The Bay Area is leading CA job growth with a year over year gain of approximately 70,000 jobs or 2.2% compared to the national gain of 1.4%. Job growth in the San Jose metro area including Palo Alto is even higher (3.3%) driven by gains in technology sectors. The state uenmployment rate is at 10.9% (still 3rd highest among all states) but down from a peak of 12.4%.
Local unemployment rates have come down more at 8.2% in Santa Clara, 7.8% in San Mateo and 7.4% in San Francisco.
Other areas in the state with the exception of Orange County are not faring as well although all areas are now in recovery.
Exports are at record levels and the housing market is beginning to stabilize. Local markets are doing better as witness the strong demand for downtown commerical space and multiple offers on some homes in Palo Alto once again.
The state economy is connected to the national economy, events in Europe and the Pacific Rim and to the continuing gridlock in state and national politics.
Economic growth will remain modest until these world, national and state issues see progress.
More in the following posts.
Local Journalism.
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