Gloomy Portraits of State's Job Market Are Misleading

[Judi Lynn]

August 24, 2003
Gloomy Portraits of State's Job Market Are Misleading

By Marla Dickerson, Times Staff Writer


To hear Arnold Schwarzenegger and other gubernatorial hopefuls tell it, the California job market is totally in the tank.

Last week, Schwarzenegger advisor George P. Shultz branded jobs the campaign's "new four-letter word." Fellow Republicans Sen. Tom McClintock of Thousand Oaks and Bill Simon Jr., who dropped out of the race Saturday, have spotlighted California's recent steep employment losses as a reason to sack Gov. Gray Davis and bring in new leadership.

Even Gallagher, the comedian candidate and a self-proclaimed member of the "Party party," is calling for business "obituaries" to be published whenever companies go belly up, underscoring the continuing pain in the state's labor market.

Yet the picture being painted by those in the recall race — that California is suffering disproportionately on the employment front — is in many respects misleading. As a percentage of its job base, California's statewide employment losses aren't any more severe than those of the nation overall. (snip/...)

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-calecon24aug24,1,2863950.story?coll=la-home-leftrail

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[spinbaby]

1. So what they're saying is...

Sure, California's job situation is crappy, but no crappier than the rest of the country.

[robbedvoter]

2. Whis is relevant, considering other states don't recall governors

and nobody accuses bush of the national disaster.

[jamesinca]

3. Actiually they do accuse Bush

Peter Ueberroth in the S.F. Chronicle and in a thread I posted in here yesterday stated this is reflective of the Bush policy and economy. I will go look for my post on this and put the link when I find it.

"Business executive Peter Ueberroth, running for governor in the recall election, said Thursday that Gov. Gray Davis does not deserve to be blamed for the state's fiscal crisis.

Ueberroth, who initially opposed the recall, said it would be unfair to single out Davis for the state's fiscal crisis, which Ueberroth attributed more to the decline of the economy than any failure on the part of the state's political leadership. "

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/08/22/MN15984.DTL