Opinion: ‘California Comeback’ hasn’t helped everyone
By Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee
As Gov. Jerry Brown runs for re-election, he has adopted “California Comeback” – voiced during his State of the State address in January – as his informal slogan.
Dan Walters
Not surprisingly, therefore, Brown’s Employment Development Department issued a report last week, keyed to Labor Day, crowing that California has recovered – numerically – all of the 1.3 million jobs it lost during the recession.
“California is helping lead the nation in solid job growth, which has enabled us to put the recession behind us,” said EDD Director Patrick W. Henning Jr.
A day later, the left-leaning California Budget Project released its annual Labor Day report and didn’t buy into the everything-is-rosy scenario painted by the governor and his minions.
It pointed out that while the job numbers have recovered, unemployment remains relatively high (tied for sixth-highest in the nation) because, since the recession began in 2007, California’s labor force has grown by more than 700,000 and “far more jobs are needed to account for those additional Californians who are searching for work.”