Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

“While the nation’s job engine sputters, California’s is revving up, thanks to another month of solid employment growth with international trade and tourism leading the way,” the L.A. Times is reporting.

“Employers statewide added 38,300 net new jobs in June with gains in most industries, including construction and professional services, according to a report Friday by the state Employment Development Department.

“‘It’s an impressive number,’ said Christopher Thornberg, founding principal at Beacon Economics, a Los Angeles consulting firm. ‘This is very surprising.

“The increase in jobs helped push California’s unemployment rate down in June to 10.7% from May’s 10.8%. The state also revised May’s jobs figure up, to 45,900 from the initial report of 33,900.

“California’s job market is growing faster than the nation’s — 2% since last June compared to the national rate of 1.4% — in part, because the state had nowhere to go but up. The bursting of the housing bubble hurt it more than almost any state.

“But California is showing renewed strength.

“Silicon Valley, powered by such tech giants as Google Inc., Apple Inc.and Facebook Inc., has added thousand of jobs and billions of wealth to the state’s economy. Now Southern California is starting to regain its mojo.

“Tourism has rebounded as visitors return to the state’s beaches and theme parks. Healthcare continues to advance, even in a sluggish economy. White-collar jobs such as accounting, finance and legal services are starting to return.

“Even the long-suffering construction industry is adding jobs as developers rush to build apartment units for a growing population that is no longer able to afford single-family houses.

“‘Construction was our biggest major drag for a long time,’ said Esmael Adibi, director of the A. Gary Anderson Center for Economic Research at Chapman University. ‘But now we’re coming back stronger in terms of percentages.”‘

The rest of the article is here.

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