California has somehow managed to outpace the country in job-creation numbers even as the state posts a 10.7% unemployment rate, according to the newest UCLA Anderson Forecast.
Since January 2010, the Golden State has “outperformed the rest of the U.S. in job creation,” Jerry Nickelsburg, UCLA Anderson senior economist, said in the report.
According to Nickelsburg, the only state to outpace California over the past 12 months has been Nebraska, which is experiencing an energy boom.
But international economic risk posed by China’s slowed growth and Europe’s recession has the potential to eliminate 165,000 California jobs if it results in just a 1% decline in U.S. gross domestic product, Nickelsburg said.
“California has considerable exposure to China and Europe,” he noted. “Together they make up one quarter of all direct exports from the state.”
Even though the state’s unemployment rate has stayed among the highest in the nation, he pronounced that California is on the mend and growing.
Nickelsburg expects the state’s unemployment rate to drop to single digits, hitting 9.8 % in 2013 and 7.9% by year-end 2014.
