economics

(Nevada Economic Development Partnership file)

One of the favored attacks by business interest on progressive economic policies is the claim that they will drive employers away. It is one we have heard frequently during the living wage battle in LA. They like to use anecdotal evidence or simply scary language to try and deny fair working conditions and wages. They have a theory and it was just disproved by the PPIC, again.

The study, being released today by the nonpartisan San Francisco-based institute, says that while some California companies are moving jobs out of state, non-California companies are moving operations here. And, of course, existing companies are adding jobs.

"California's share of national employment dipped in the early to mid-1990s and has risen since then," says the study, co-authored by the institute's Jed Kolko and David Neumark. The numbers "make it difficult to argue that these changes reflect a bad business climate in recent years."

California is doing well because "cost is only one element of the equation," said Kolko, an economist and research fellow, in an interview. "If firms can be more productive here ... firms will choose to be here."

Like the rest of the country, the growth here is not coming in industrial jobs, but in the service industry. However, even in factory jobs we are doing well compared to the rest of the country.

Of course, business interests try and put up a straw man again.