The March data returned to reporting mixed results for the state’s economy. Nonfarm jobs rose 28,000 in the preliminary results for March, while the loss in February was revised 3,300 lower to 6,600. The preliminary average monthly gain for the first quarter of 2024 was 15,800, down sharply from the previous quarter’s average of 38,800 but better than the 5,200 average loss in the first quarter of 2023.

The state’s energy policies continued to push prices ever higher. In January on a 12-month moving average basis, residential electricity rates rose to the second highest among the contiguous states, while industrial rates rose to the highest.

The Baltimore bridge collapse is the latest event adding to global trade disruptions, coming on the heels of continued challenges to shipping through the Panama and Suez Canals, uncertainty in the global economic outlook, and the shift of extended contract negotiations to the Eastern ports.

In Q4 2023, US Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that California real GDP rose 3.1% on an annualized basis, below the US average of 3.4% and 29th highest among the states. For 2023 as a whole, California real GDP rose 2.1%, below the US average of 2.5% and 32nd highest among the states.

California’s unemployment rate reached 5.3% in February, the highest in the nation and the highest in California since December 2021. Total number of unemployed surpassed projections made for the budget by Department of Finance by 7%, adding further strain to a state budget already facing multi-year deficits due to high spending.

The February labor force data in general produced weak results for the state. Nonfarm jobs dipped by 3,400 over the month, while January’s strong preliminary numbers were revised down sharply from the initially reported 58,100 to 25,600, the lowest since last September and only 38% as high as the gain in January 2023.

The Los Angeles Times recently published an editorial allegedly to correct the record on information being disseminated by groups such as FactsPerGallon.com on the reasons why gasoline prices are so much higher in California. In what purports to be a fact check piece, the editorial is astonishingly fact-free in its arguments.