said<\/a>\u00a0Newsom around 20 minutes into the live-streamed event.<\/p>\nWinegarden had a word for this: “Spin.”<\/p>\n
In his report, Winegarden wrote that, at its peak in 2021, California accounted for 14.5% of the national economy. That is no longer the case, he said. In fact, Winegarden wrote California is not the country\u2019s economic leader of the 2020s.<\/p>\n
California\u2019s dominance in technology jobs is lessening. There was a 0% change in tech jobs in 2023 compared to states such as Texas reporting 2.8% growth and Florida right behind with 2.7% growth. In 2024, California saw a 3.4% decline in tech jobs while the Lone Star and Sunshine states experienced slight upticks.<\/p>\n
Winegarden also noted California has seen a \u201crelative manufacturing decline that began in earnest in 2010.\u201d For every 10,000 residents in the state, Winegarden found there are only 334 manufacturing jobs, which pales in comparison to the top five states \u2013 Wisconsin (789), Indiana (758), Iowa (698), Kansas (601) and Michigan (599).<\/p>\n
\u201cLess-regulated, lower-tax states such as Kentucky (575), Alabama (558), Arkansas (530), Nebraska (530), Tennessee (509), South Carolina (491), Mississippi (488), and South Dakota (487) all have better per capita factory jobs numbers,\u201d wrote Winegarden in PRI\u2019s report.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These things also have negative impacts on small businesses built around big companies. Winegarden called this \u201cdisconcerting\u201d because small businesses are the backbone of the economy and play an essential economic role.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, businesses of all sizes need people, and Winegarden said people have been moving out of California for years.<\/p>\n
\u201cCalifornians are choosing to live elsewhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Among the metropolitan areas, Los Angeles County\u2019s loss of 53,394 people between July 2024 and July 2025 was the largest in the country. Orange, San Diego and Ventura counties were also among the top 10 metro areas that lost the most people.<\/p>\n
Winegarden added that \u201cwhat\u2019s really disconcerting\u201d is that the artificial intelligence industry is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, yet technology jobs are growing less in this region.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have these assets, and yet while we have these really important assets, we’re still not generating the jobs,\u00a0and we’re not generating the growth you would expect,\u201d said Winegarden. \u201cSo the fact that AI is centered here, and yet our job performance is worse than the national average,\u00a0and the organization overall, that is really, really an indictment of what’s happening here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Americans living in other states may see a story about California and dismiss it thinking it does not impact them, but Winegarden said that would be a mistake. Connecticut, for example, needs California to be successful and growing just as California needs Connecticut to be successful and growing, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are one national economy,” Winegarden said, noting Americans do better when growth is solid across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen California doesn’t do as well, that dampens growth across the country, and when California does better, other states do better, and it works in reverse too,\u201d said Winegarden. \u201cWe’re one economy, and we really need to be rooting for one another,\u00a0not constantly tearing each other down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winegarden said California\u2019s problems can be remedied. He recommended lawmakers \u201crethink and reform\u201d fiscal and regulatory policies.<\/p>\n
For example, legislators should \u201caim to reduce the total per capita state tax collections closer to the national average of $4,329,” Winegarden said.<\/p>\n
At the same time, lawmakers should practice \u201cgreater fiscal discipline on the state\u2019s spending,” he said.<\/p>\n
As for deregulation efforts, Winegarden said those should start with reforming the California Environmental Quality Act. According to the economist, \u201cCEQA is preventing the construction of needed roads, bridges, rails, and water and telecom infrastructure,\u201d while also obstructing the construction of schools and hospitals, and stalling efforts to do things like increasing wildfire resilience.<\/p>\n
\u201cReforms should limit the ability of groups to use CEQA as a cudgel to obstruct any development and impose stringent transparency requirements on CEQA litigation funding,\u201d wrote Winegarden. \u201cTo further alleviate the excessive cost of housing, restrictive state and local regulations need to be relaxed, including land-use and zoning regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winegarden said eliminating rent controls will remove \u201ca major disincentive that obstructs the construction and development of rental units.\u201d<\/p>\n
By removing disincentives to build more housing, Winegarden said, California will not only promote greater housing affordability, but it will also significantly upgrade the quality of housing for many Californians.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(The Center Square) \u2013 New research shows California is the Not-So-Golden State when it comes to jobs. Pacific…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[380,2080,7,13997,9,8,4019,965,13969,13965,457,47,137,1289,114509,17744,74,101,4459,1747,1226],"class_list":{"0":"post-259721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-affordable-housing","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-california-environmental-quality-act","12":"tag-california-headlines","13":"tag-california-news","14":"tag-construction","15":"tag-economics","16":"tag-economies","17":"tag-employment","18":"tag-gavin-newsom","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-county","21":"tag-manufacturing","22":"tag-pacific-research-institute","23":"tag-private-sector","24":"tag-san-diego","25":"tag-san-francisco","26":"tag-san-francisco-bay-area","27":"tag-tax","28":"tag-ventura-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}