Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | S | San Diego Business Journal

Study: California waving goodbye to high-paying jobs: state suffering losses in manufacturing, insurance, finance sectors.

Article Excerpt
It's a double dose of bad news for California's economy.

A recent study from a respected think tank has found that not only have the state's major industries all suffered some net job loss from business relocations, but that this effect is most pronounced among industries that tend to pay higher wages.

The findings by the Public Policy Institute of California--which studied business relocations into and out of the state between 1992 and 2003--run contrary to conventional wisdom that lower-wage jobs are most susceptible to relocation. Most losses were found to have occurred in finance, insurance, manufacturing, and business and professional services.

And while the study's co-authors said that taken as a whole the losses were small, the study still gives additional weight to the argument that California's business climate is not hospitable.

"We found that every major industry in the state experienced a small amount of net job migration out of state, but these particular high-paying industries saw more movement," said Jed Kolko, a research fellow at the institute and a study co-author.

The study, undertaken specifically to address the issue of the state's business climate, is not the first to conclude that California's higher-paying jobs may be...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!