SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE
California home values have been stabilizing for more than a year now. Residential construction, although better than last year, remains a huge drag on the state’s economy. Sales of distressed properties still dominate the market.
The state’s job outlook hasn’t changed much from previous forecasts, despite 10 straight months of employment growth and a surprisingly strong May in which California employers added nearly 34,000 jobs.
The unemployment rate is expected to average 9.7% next year, falling to an average of 8.3% in 2014.
Nationally, the U.S recovery will continue its slow plod, according to the forecast.
The U.S. will not regain all jobs lost during the Great Recession until the end of 2014, in part because so many workers have been permanently displaced, said Edward Leamer, director of the Anderson Forecast, in the report.
He said many jobs have gone overseas or have been automated, creating millions of excess workers in sectors including manufacturing, construction and retail.
“Good jobs in the United States in the 21st century will require humans to do things that are not suited to the capabilities of faraway foreigners, robots or microprocessors. We need a workforce that can think creatively and solve the new problems, not merely recall the solutions to old problems,” Leamer wrote.
