California rated biggest contributor to America’s productivity growth Read more: http

[Rasulis]

The title is from an article published by American Thinker. American Thinker is a conservative online magazine. It is extreme right to the point that they are off the chart right. I don't think they have ever say anything nice about California. So this is probably a first.

The article was based on a recently published Bureau of Labor Statistics study (June, 2019) which can be found here.

https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2019/ar...y-measures.htm

California, with a productivity growth rate of +1.7 percent from 2000 to 2017 was the biggest contributor to America’s productivity growth, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The nonpartisan Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) as a branch of the of the U.S. Department of Labor has been calculating productivity measures for the U.S. economy since 1884 by measuring labor market activity, working conditions, and price changes in the economy. The BLS has regularly reported that the U.S. productivity annual gains have fallen relentlessly from a +2.7 percent in 1966 to just a +0.5 percent recently.

But in a new study of U.S. state-level productivity study, including state-level output per hour, output, hours, unit labor costs, and after-inflation hourly compensation for the period of 2000-2017, found productivity growth varied from a high of +3.1 percent in North Dakota to a low of −0.7 percent in Louisiana. When accounting for population size and economic output, California was found the clear winner over almost two decades.

But the BLS found positive compounded annual gains for all input measures for California productivity including: 1) +4 percent output; 2) +1.8 percent labor productivity; 3) +2 percent output per worker; 4) +2.2 percent employment; 4) +1.7 percent real (after-inflation) hourly compensation; and 5) +2.2 percent unit labor costs.

The BLS also found that California’s 2000 through 2017 gains outperformed all other large population states for productivity with Texas falling by -0.2 percent; New York up +0.7 percent; Florida eking-out a +0.6 percent; and Illinois suffering a -0.5 percent.

The BLS previously highlighted a growing national wage gap from 2008 to 2017 with labor productivity rising by +1.3 percent, versus labor compensation growth of just +0.5 percent. The new state-level reporting found that only “32 states saw labor productivity increase faster than real hourly compensation.” The biggest losers were New York, North Dakota, Oregon, and Pennsylvania, where the difference was 1 percent or more.

When measuring on a regional basis for annual labor productivity growth from 2000 to 2017, the West led the nation with +1.1 percent growth; the Northeast followed with +0.9 percent gains; the South grew at +.02 percent; and the Midwest dragged down the nation for 18 year with no growth.

Color me red. American Thinker just published something nice about California without taking potshots. Well, there was one paragraph, but it was pretty mild dig. I am genuinely shocked.

[Zan15]

The title is from an article published by American Thinker. American Thinker is a conservative online magazine. It is extreme right to the point that they are off the chart right. I don't think they have ever say anything nice about California. So this is probably a first.

The article was based on a recently published Bureau of Labor Statistics study (June, 2019) which can be found here.

https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2019/ar...y-measures.htm



Color me red. American Thinker just published something nice about California without taking potshots. Well, there was one paragraph, but it was pretty mild dig. I am genuinely shocked.

I am more shocked somehow they did not try to claim it was the republicans who made it this way.

or that they did not harp on outstanding/unfunded debt (which if adjusted on a per capita basis is not really that bad).

[D Luniz]

I am more shocked somehow they did not try to claim it was the republicans who made it this way.

or that they did not harp on outstanding/unfunded debt (which if adjusted on a per capita basis is not really that bad).

thats cause almost every normal "this is why California is bad" claim they like to use, the Trump admin is doing BIGLY

and no one wants to seem in anyway, to be insulting Dear Leader, its a quick way to get putup infront of the tweet wall

[Wyrt]

I am more shocked somehow they did not try to claim it was the republicans who made it this way.

or that they did not harp on outstanding/unfunded debt (which if adjusted on a per capita basis is not really that bad).

Because the last time Republicans had power we had Arnold as governor and things were going to shit. Deficits every year, budgets delayed every year, etc.

[Rasulis]

I am more shocked somehow they did not try to claim it was the republicans who made it this way.

or that they did not harp on outstanding/unfunded debt (which if adjusted on a per capita basis is not really that bad).

I do find it amusing that they like to brag about the 2.9% growth in 2018. However, no one ever mentioned the fact that CA's 273 billion GDP growth in 2018 accounted for 19.6% of US growth.

Then there is the record breaking US stock market. Not a single person bother to point out that CA companies + Microsoft and Amazon are basically the stock market. If any of them sneeze, the stock market catches cold.

They like to point out that people and companies are leaving CA. Yet, they failed to mention that, despite CA decreasing share of US population (down to 11.9% in 2019 from 12.15% in 2015), it's share of US GDP has grown from 13.5% in 2014 to 14.1% in 2016 and 14.5% in 2018. It is the reverse of TX whose share of US population has grown from 8.61% in 2015 to 8.68% in 2019, but their share of US GDP has gone down from 9.5% in 2014 to 8.7% in 2018.

Trump owes California a big thank you for carrying his economy.

[Mormolyce]

I'm somehow not surprised that those dead end coal jobs in the heartland that employ fewer people than Arby's don't stack up against the job market in the most populous state in the US, which includes Silicon Valley...

[Rasulis]

I'm somehow not surprised that those dead end coal jobs in the heartland that employ fewer people than Arby's don't stack up against the job market in the most populous state in the US, which includes Silicon Valley...

There is no surprise in CA beating coal states in productivity. However, if we trust BLS findings, CA is ahead of all the states in the US in term of productivity by leagues.



The graph is from the report. If people bother to read the report, the state name is shown when you mouse over the blue dots. From right to left, CA - TX - NY - PA - WA - MA - the rest.

The axis labels did not copy. Vertical axis represents State Labor Productivity and horizontal axis represents State Contribution to the US Labor Productivity.

California with 1.7-percent growth made the largest contribution (0.22 percent) to national productivity growth (1.0 percent), followed by Texas (0.10 percent) and New York (0.08 percent). North Dakota, despite having the largest productivity growth rate, only ranks 28th in terms of its contribution to national productivity growth.

[Zaydin]

Well, conservatives aren't going to like that since they like to pretend California is still an economic basket case that happened due to the GOP there.

[Wyrt]

Well, conservatives aren't going to like that since they like to pretend California is still an economic basket case that happened due to the GOP there.

"California sucks! Please ignore that it was Republicans that tried to ruin the state and Democrats who saved it"- GOP battlecry.

[Zaydin]

"California sucks! Please ignore that it was Republicans that tried to ruin the state and Democrats who saved it"- GOP battlecry.

The worst of it happened while Schwarzenegger was governor, didn't it? Only started to reverse the trend after Dems retook the governors mansion and got a super majority in the state legislature and voters passed a tax increase at the ballot.

[Wyrt]

The worst of it happened while Schwarzenegger was governor, didn't it? Only started to reverse the trend after Dems retook the governors mansion and got a super majority in the state legislature and voters passed a tax increase at the ballot.

Yep. Things got real shitty under Republican leadership and then got better when the Democrats took control.

[D Luniz]

I do find it amusing that they like to brag about the 2.9% growth in 2018. However, no one ever mentioned the fact that CA's 273 billion GDP growth in 2018 accounted for 19.6% of US growth.

Then there is the record breaking US stock market. Not a single person bother to point out that CA companies + Microsoft and Amazon are basically the stock market. If any of them sneeze, the stock market catches cold.

They like to point out that people and companies are leaving CA. Yet, they failed to mention that, despite CA decreasing share of US population (down to 11.9% in 2019 from 12.15% in 2015), it's share of US GDP has grown from 13.5% in 2014 to 14.1% in 2016 and 14.5% in 2018. It is the reverse of TX whose share of US population has grown from 8.61% in 2015 to 8.68% in 2019, but their share of US GDP has gone down from 9.5% in 2014 to 8.7% in 2018.

Trump owes California a big thank you for carrying his economy.

actually, when the market was in one of its downward sputters cause of some tariff threat tweets, one of the disingenuous trump supporters was claiming the market drops were from those CA tech companies purposely tanking their stock prices. Of course no proof was given for what would have be a market scandal to surpass ENRON.

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Yep. Things got real shitty under Republican leadership and then got better when the Democrats took control.

funny how that is always how it works

[Rasulis]

Yep. Things got real shitty under Republican leadership and then got better when the Democrats took control.

After Pete Wilson, California had the bad luck of having two bad governors back to back. Gray Davis (D) who managed to squander 16B budget surplus left by Wilson. Despite the fact that California was in a period of high revenue. After he was recalled, we got Arnold which turned out to be 10 times worse than Davis. Pretty much all of California current budget problems dated back to him. Correction - all of California budget problem dated back to him.

Jerry Brown (D) was the right governor at the right time for California. The one person with the political standing to survive raising taxes, lowering benefits and cutting various funding at the same time. Unfortunately, he was not able to solve California retirement fund issue or introduce some much needed common sense exemptions for CEQA.

Personally, I think California need a fiscally conservative governor like Brown to balance the two houses which are pretty far left right now. I wish that Brown was not term-limited and could run for another 4 years.

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actually, when the market was in one of its downward sputters cause of some tariff threat tweets, one of the disingenuous trump supporters was claiming the market drops were from those CA tech companies purposely tanking their stock prices. Of course no proof was given for what would have be a market scandal to surpass ENRON.

- - - Updated - - -

That was a totally dumb claim. Without the tech sector, 2018 stock market would have been a total bloodbath. The market is doing much better in 2019, but tech sector performance (31.3% increase YTD) is still ahead of the S&P 500 (20.2% increase YTD).

[Kaleredar]

Well, conservatives aren't going to like that since they like to pretend California is still an economic basket case that happened due to the GOP there.

From my personal experience they seem to refute that California is a success. They have all these asterisks and whatnots that they like to apply to California.

[Sunseeker]

Personally, I think California need a fiscally conservative governor like Brown to balance the two houses which are pretty far left right now. I wish that Brown was not term-limited and could run for another 4 years.

HAHAHAHAHAA Jerry Brown fiscally conservative? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA

[Kellhound]

"California sucks! Please ignore that it was Republicans that tried to ruin the state and Democrats who saved it"- GOP battlecry.

Cailifornia DOES suck, it did when I lived there in the 90s and is worse now.

[kasuke06]

After Pete Wilson, California had the bad luck of having two bad governors back to back. Gray Davis (D) who managed to squander 16B budget surplus left by Wilson. Despite the fact that California was in a period of high revenue. After he was recalled, we got Arnold which turned out to be 10 times worse than Davis. Pretty much all of California current budget problems dated back to him. Correction - all of California budget problem dated back to him.

Jerry Brown (D) was the right governor at the right time for California. The one person with the political standing to survive raising taxes, lowering benefits and cutting various funding at the same time. Unfortunately, he was not able to solve California retirement fund issue or introduce some much needed common sense exemptions for CEQA.

Personally, I think California need a fiscally conservative governor like Brown to balance the two houses which are pretty far left right now. I wish that Brown was not term-limited and could run for another 4 years.

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That was a totally dumb claim. Without the tech sector, 2018 stock market would have been a total bloodbath. The market is doing much better in 2019, but tech sector performance (31.3% increase YTD) is still ahead of the S&P 500 (20.2% increase YTD).

So dumbass democrat and a movie star pretending to be governor led to problems? Weird, I thought it was literally all republicans and anything that republicans ever did good was retroactively bad if you listen to the democrats.

[Kaleredar]

Cailifornia DOES suck, it did when I lived there in the 90s and is worse now.

What with their GDP of a large, successful country and all...

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So dumbass democrat and a movie star pretending to be governor led to problems? Weird, I thought it was literally all republicans and anything that republicans ever did good was retroactively bad if you listen to the democrats.

Now hold up now.



Where in there did he praise a republican for doing something right?

[Kellhound]

What with their GDP of a large, successful country and all...

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Now hold up now.



Where in there did he praise a republican for doing something right?

Its "success" is one of the reasons it sucks. Ridiculous cost of living and traffic worth committing suicide over....

[Rasulis]

HAHAHAHAHAA Jerry Brown fiscally conservative? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA

It is all relative. During his first governorship (1975 – 1983) he was definitely fiscally conservative in both his private and the state finance. Brown rented a 250 dollar per month apartment rather than stay at governor's mansion. He even had roommates. Rather than riding a chauffeured limousine as previous governors had done, Brown walked to work and drove in a Plymouth. He was fiscally conservative to the point of being a cheapskate. David Letterman used to joke about that on his show.

Although not quite as bad as he used to be, he started his third governorship by shifting many government programs from state to local level, raise taxes and cut social services, school budgets, UC and CSU budgets. We used to do a lot of projects for UCSD, and overnight the projects dried up. All in all, he did what needed to be done to pull California out of the deep hole that was the 2008 housing market meltdown.

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Its "success" is one of the reasons it sucks. Ridiculous cost of living and traffic worth committing suicide over....

Nothing in life is perfect. The state will either fix it's problems or the problems will drag it down. Either way, at this stage the state economy is growing faster than the rest of country by leaps and bounds.