economy

The LA Times is buying out 56 reporters contracts, including that of Nancy Cleeland, the paper's labor writer. She is leaving in "frustration with the paper's coverage of working people and organized labor, and a sad realization that the situation won't change anytime soon." Thankfully, the Huffington Post provided a platform for her to explain her decision and the massive failure of the LA Times to address issues of great concern to regional residents, their target market.

It's awkward to criticize an old friend, which I still consider the Times to be, but I think the question of how mainstream journalists deal with the working class is important and deserves debate. There may be no better setting in which to examine the issue: The Los Angeles region is defined by gaping income disparities and an enormous pool of low-wage immigrant workers, many of whom are pulled north by lousy, unstable jobs. It's also home to one of the most active and creative labor federations in the country. But you wouldn't know any of that from reading a typical issue of the L.A. Times, in print or online. Increasingly anti-union in its editorial policy, and celebrity -- and crime-focused in its news coverage, it ignores the economic discontent that is clearly reflected in ethnic publications such as La Opinion.

The city deserves and needs coverage of these issues, the vibrant LA County Labor Federation, and the impact of public policy on labor. The focus on crime and celebrities marks a shift away from real journalism. They are seeking quick profitability, not a quality product.

More college educated workers have left California than have moved here in the last five years. This is creating a crisis, as we will soon not have enough educated workers to meet the projected economic demand. The Public Policy Institute just completed a study on the subject.

Demand is rising, due in part to the graying of the baby boomers and the need created when people move out of the state. The high cost of housing is driving people away. California used to get a "large supply of college graduates from other parts of the country", but the baby boomers are now older than the age most people migrate across state borders.

PPIC says that we can only meet the demand by attracting college graduates in unprecedented numbers, but that does not seem likely to happen. The number of immigrants coming to California with a college degree exceed the number of immigrants who were not high school graduates between 2000-2005. This trend could "intensify but the number of highly educated immigrants to California would still need to more than double to meet projected needs." The study points out that it would require changes to U.S. immigration law, which is unlikely to occur. Not only that, but there is more competition internationally these days for highly skilled workers in their own countries.

PPIC concludes that the need is unlikely to be met by increased migration of those with degrees.

However, increases in college participation and graduation among California's residents could help meet these future demands. Such increases will be at least partly induced by the way growth that will occur as highly skilled labor becomes relatively scarce. Public policy in California, a state where the majority of college students are in public institutions, has an important role to play in accommodating and even encouraging such increases.

We need to grow our own college graduates. The rapidly rising cost of tuition makes that much more difficult. We will soon spend more money on our prisons than higher education systems. Talk to any recent graduate here in California and they will tell you about the burden of their loans and wonder how they will ever afford to own a home. The state's future rests on the ability to train and retain the millenials. Public policy must reflect that need. Businesses need this as much as anyone else.

Our retired pubic employeers are putting billions of dollars a year back into California with their pensions. The vast scope was unknown until a major study measured the impact in terms of dollars spent and jobs created. SacBee:

California's retired schoolteachers, firefighters and other public employees pack a powerful economic punch in the state economy, surpassing the impact of three major University of California campuses combined, the airlines or the oil and gas industry, according to a new study.

Whether retirees are spending their pension dollars on rent or groceries, the money is fueling the growth of 139,000 new jobs a year with an annual payroll of $4.8 billion, researchers said in an economic impact report to be released today by California's giant public pension funds.

There are 675,000 retirees currently receiving pensions from the Cal-PERS and Cal-STRS programs. The study shows this amounts to an estimated $21 billion in annual economic activity in California, producing a "$1.36 billion boost to state and local tax coffers". The researchers were actually stunned by their results.