California’s economic recovery was better than expected, but gas prices are shooting up, threatening the state’s hard-fought gains.
Those were the main takeaways from a Friday report from the state Employment Development Department, which pinpointed California’s January unemployment rate at 5.8% — the same as its December rate, which was revised down from 6.5% due to updated figures showing sizable job gains that month. Other key takeaways:
- California saw a 7.4% increase in job gains from January 2021 to January 2022, compared to 4.6% nationally.
- The state has regained approximately 82% of the nearly 2.8 million jobs lost in the first two months of the pandemic — more than previously projected.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who lauded California’s economic prowess in last week’s State of the State speech, said the report was evidence that the state’s COVID-19 restrictions worked.
- Newsom: “Our approach has been to follow the science while supporting those hardest hit by the pandemic, and it not only saved tens of thousands of lives — it got our state back to work faster and better than the rest of the country.”
But there’s still a long way to go: California tied with Nevada for the nation’s highest unemployment rate in December, the last month for which federal statistics are available. The Golden State’s civilian labor force is still down by 452,000 workers compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to Michael Bernick, a former EDD director and attorney at Duane Morris. And inflation rose 7.9% nationwide in the yearlong period that ended in February, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week — the highest rate in 40 years.
- Bernick: “Inflation has already cut into wage gains in California, particularly the wage gains of lower income workers, and threatens to significantly slow growth.”
- Soaring inflation, plus Russia’s war on Ukraine, have contributed to eye-popping gas prices: The average price in California for a regular gallon was $5.74 on Sunday, compared to $5.29 a week ago, according to the American Automobile Association.
Today, Republican state lawmakers are expected to force a vote on a bill to eliminate California’s 51-cent gas excise tax for six months — one of several ideas Newsom and legislators have proposed to help people hurting at the pump. (Another bill, introduced Friday by Democratic state Sen. Ben Allen of Santa Monica, would require oil refiners to disclose their profit margins on each barrel of gasoline sold.)
- But tinkering with the gas tax appears to be increasingly politically unappealing for California’s supermajority-Democratic Legislature. “We need to just leave the gas tax alone and focus on other forms of tax rebates or other supports for working families,” state Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, told the Los Angeles Times.
- Still, some question whether rebates — potentially similar to the Golden State stimulus checks sent last year to millions of Californians — could worsen runaway inflation. “We have an overheated economy,” Republican political consultant Rob Stutzman told the Sacramento Bee. “Does it really make sense to dump money back in?”
Newsom and progressives have been and still are the biggest risk to the CA economy and public safety,
You get what you vote for.
Democrats as far as the eye can see, running every branch of the CA and the Federal Governments, and everything is going to heck faster than you can say “stagflation” :(
Just follow the lead of the Biden Admin –
Sorry, nothing we can do – it is all Putin’s Fault.
or try this one,
– it is just Transitory – get over it,
and 100 economists in our ‘Power Poll’ agree –
so don’t blame us.
Jimmy Carter is doing summersaults as his
“Worst President Legacy’ is surpassed in 1 year by Biden.
Buckle in – Big Karma coming your way – Biden-flation soars..
“Producer prices increased a blistering 10% PPI for the year ending in February,
according to a report Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
the HIGHEST on record.”
(and this is before the Ukraine impacts started to kick-in)
The inflation rate in Today’s PPI is the highest in the gauge’s 11 yr history….
and
“…signals More PAIN to come for households.
The PPI gauges the wholesale prices of goods, which are eventually passed down to consumers.”
“The news came just days after a report for the month of February found
consumer prices (CPI) increased by 7.9% –
the FASTEST Annual Rate in 4 Decades.”
Work90 is Right! –
DEM policies are leading to:
Slow to No Growth,
Job Losses,
and continued Long Term Inflation,
ie. StagFlation or Recession-inflation.
A condition the CA Economy and tax Revenues are most vulnerable to.
“But tinkering with the gas tax appears to be increasingly politically unappealing for California’s supermajority-Democratic Legislature.”
THAT is the takeaway from this article and people need to start voting with their wallet instead of along party lines.
Inflation Timeline;… Administration’s Response:
February 2021: Inflation 4%: “Inflation is transitory”
October 2021: Inflation 6%: “Inflation is good.”
January 2022: Inflation 7.5% “Caused by corporate greed.”
March 2022: Inflation 10.6% “Putin did it!”
August 2022: Inflation 13%… “It’s Trump’s fault!”
Not the BB but Bloomberg…
Bloomberg had some advice for people earning below $300K to make some lifestyle changes
and reduce the impact of 40 Year High Bidenflation –
– take the bus instead of driving
– replacing meat with lentils
– don’t buy in bulk
– reconsider pet ownership
To top it all off, Bloomberg wryly told the American public that
“nobody” claimed inflation would be “fun.”
Of course, it may well be true – Bidenflation is here.
—– “Report: Inflation Now Higher Than Biden’s Approval Rating” (13Jan2022 BB) —-
“In a historic first, the inflation rate of the U.S. Dollar has Surpassed the Approval Rating of the President. ”
“Wow!
My inflation is way higher than Trump’s inflation!
Record high! Take that, Trump!”
said Biden to a bowl of oranges he had mistaken for Trump.
“It’s so high it even passed my really high approval rating!
That’s how you do it, Jack!”
Biden’s aides then rushed in to explain that high inflation is a bad thing.
Biden’s approval rating is not doing nearly as well, with several pollsters revealing it
has melted down and sunk deep into the Earth’s core like
a massive malfunctioning nuclear reactor.
“The administration hopes they can turn things around by passing some
massively popular legislation,
like a federal takeover of elections or
mandated Pfizer drugs for all. “
At the moment, inflation is really threatening California’s economic recovery, and that’s obvious. The first blow was the pandemic, which brought a devastating damage not only to California but to the whole world. The next step was the unemployment increasing, which caused the loss of millions of jobs. The problem now is an eye-popping gas prices. The given problems are obvious and it’s not just an “overheated economy,” it’s a real problems that needs to be solved. And it is unlikely that the problem of inflation will be solved by the fact that people will use the bus instead of cars, or buy lentils instead of meat. The issue of inflation is an interesting topic not only for discussions, but also for writing a year papers, essays, etc. Here is a website where you can order an essay https://essaypay.com/essays-for-sale/.
At the moment, inflation is really threatening California’s economic recovery, and that’s obvious. The first blow was the pandemic, which brought a devastating damage not only to California but to the whole world. The next step was the unemployment increasing, which caused the loss of millions of jobs. The problem now is an eye-popping gas prices. The given problems are obvious and it’s not just an “overheated economy,” it’s a real problems that needs to be solved. And it is unlikely that the problem of inflation will be solved by the fact that people will use the bus instead of cars, or buy lentils instead of meat. The issue of inflation is an interesting topic not only for discussions, but also for writing a year papers, essays, etc. Here is a website where you can order an essay https://essaypay.com/essays-for-sale/.
The inflation rate, according to research shared by https://www.smartwrite.net/research is on the rise globally and is threatening the global post-pandemic economic recovery. I hope things go well for Califonia, and world at large.