Business News
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- Written by: Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control
“Our agents will be out this St. Patrick’s Day to help keep our communities safe,” said ABC Director Joseph McCullough. “ABC licensed businesses can play an important role in reducing DUI’s by checking IDs and not over-serving patrons.”
ABC is partnering with the California Office of Traffic Safety, or OTS, to deliver this educational message due to the high number of drunk driving crashes that occur near St. Patrick’s Day each year.
Statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) show that between 2016 and 2020, drunk driving crashes caused 287 deaths during the St. Patrick’s Day period.
In 2020, 36% of fatal crashes involved a drunk driver during the same period.
Funding for St. Patrick’s Day enforcement is provided by a grant from OTS through NHTSA.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The council and operational plan will guide the state’s investments in economic and workforce development to create more family-supporting jobs and prioritize industry sectors for future growth.
“California has created more opportunities, more jobs, and more businesses than any other state, but we need to ensure that we’re all moving forward together. Through this new council and these investments, we’re aligning all of our economic resources to create more jobs, faster for Californians in every community,” Newsom said.
Co-chaired by Dee Dee Myers, senior advisor to Gov. Newsom and director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, and Stewart Knox, secretary of Labor and Workforce Development, the California Jobs First Council will bring together various state entities, including:
Director of the Governor’s Office of Planning & Research: promoting alignment with General Plan guidelines and land use policies.
Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency: representing nature-based solutions and clean energy industries.
Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture: representing the agriculture industry.
Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency: representing the circular economy.
Secretary of the California Health & Human Services Agency: representing the healthcare industry and promoting jobs for disabled and disadvantaged workers.
Secretary of the California Department of Veterans Affairs: representing the more than 1.6 million former service members that reside in the state.
President of the Public Utilities Commission: representing opportunities to advance California’s clean energy workforce of the future and economic opportunities for communities.
“The California Jobs First Council is another piece of the puzzle in the Governor’s pursuit of creating a California For All,” said Myers. “I am looking forward to working with my colleagues to align strategic investments that further economic growth and job creation in every region of California.”
The council will coordinate the development of a statewide industrial strategy that includes a statewide economic snapshot and identification of priority sectors, a statewide projects portfolio, a business expansion, attraction, and retention strategy, and a workforce development strategy. The California Jobs First Council will also support the regional Jobs First Collaboratives to expand industry and create jobs locally.
The California Jobs First Council is an integral component of California’s broader strategy to prepare students and workers for high-paying careers.
The council will work alongside the Council for Career Education and in line with the Governor’s 2023 Executive Order that directed the creation of a Master Plan for Career Education to ensure that Californians have career pathways, develop the skills and find even more opportunities to be full beneficiaries of our state’s economy.
The master plan is largely aimed at aligning and simplifying the K-12, university, and workforce systems in California to support greater access to career education and jobs for all Californians.
In connection with the Master Plan for Career Education, the Jobs First Operational Plan will highlight the ways in which workforce development can and should be a tool used by the State and the regional Jobs First Collaboratives to help Californians, particularly the most disinvested communities, in meeting the specific skillset needs of the State’s and our regions’ priority industry sectors.
In 2021, Governor Newsom launched the $600 million Regional Investment Initiative — formerly the Community Economic Resilience Fund, or CERF — to create high-quality, accessible jobs and help build resilience to the effects of climate change and other global disruptions impacting the state’s diverse regional economies.
This investment has supported the creation of Jobs First Collaboratives in each of the state’s 13 economic regions, with representation from a wide variety of community partners including labor, business, local government, education, environmental justice, community organizations and more.
These collaboratives are in the process of developing roadmaps, including a strategy and recommended series of investments, for their respective regions.
Newsom announced that the state has awarded $14 million to each of the 13 Jobs First Collaboratives — $182 million total — to invest in sector-specific pre-development activities, enabling regions to take projects from exploratory and last-mile to ready-to-go projects that can access local, state, and federal funds, as well as private and philanthropic investments.
The 13 Jobs First Collaboratives cover every region of the state: North State, Capitol, Redwood Region, Bay Area, North San Joaquin Valley, Eastern Sierra, Central San Joaquin Valley, Orange County, Los Angeles County, Kern County, Central Coast, Inland Southern California and the Southern Border.
“California Jobs First represents a very intentional, inclusive approach to economic and workforce development,” said Stewart Knox, secretary of the California Labor & Workforce Development Agency. “By maximizing state resources and investments, the state is empowering communities to chart their own futures in a manner that is inclusive and equitable.”
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- Written by: NFIB
“It’s at least nice to see glimmers of hope for the rest of the nation’s small business owners if not for California’s, which are still having to survive under the legislative drag holding them back,” said John Kabateck, the California state director for the National Federation of Independent Business. “Right now, we’re working with our membership in helping them comply with that ridiculously onerous burden of having workplace violence prevention plans in place by July 1. It’s nice to see a personal finance course for high school students qualify for the November ballot. We only wish it was around before most of our legislators were elected to the Assembly and Senate.”
NFIB’s monthly Small Business Economic Trends, or SBET, report is the gold standard measurement of America’s small business economy.
Used by the Federal Reserve, Congressional leaders, administration officials, and state legislatures across the nation, it’s regarded as the bellwether on the health and welfare of the Main Street enterprises that employ half of all workers, generate more net new jobs than large corporations, and gave most of us the first start in our working life.
The SBET, or Optimism Index, is a national snapshot of NFIB-member, small-business owners not broken down by state. The typical NFIB member employs 10 people and reports gross sales of about $500,000 a year.
“While inflation pressures have eased since peaking in 2021, small business owners are still managing the elevated costs of higher prices and interest rates. The labor market has also eased slightly as small business owners are having an easier time attracting and retaining employees,” said NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg.
Highlights from the report
Reports of labor quality as the single most important problem for business owners decreased five points to 16%, the lowest reading since April 2020.
The net percent of owners who expect real sales to be higher increased six points from January to a net negative 10% (seasonally adjusted), an improvement from last month.
Small business owners’ plans to fill open positions continue to slow, with a seasonally adjusted net 12% planning to create new jobs in the next three months, the lowest level since May 2020.
Thirty-seven percent (seasonally adjusted) of all owners reported job openings they could not fill in the current period, down two points from January and the lowest reading since January 2021.
The net percent of owners raising average selling prices declined one point from January to a net 21% (seasonally adjusted), the lowest reading since January 2021.
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- Written by: Controller’s Office
The state ended the month with $94.7 billion in unused borrowable resources, although fiscal year-to-date receipts lag behind the estimates in the 2024-25 Governor’s proposed budget.
“General Fund receipts for the fiscal year continue to miss the mark, but thankfully California has maintained a high amount of available borrowable resources,” said Controller Cohen. “While the Legislature and Governor work to reach consensus on a balanced budget, the strong reserves they have maintained ensure cash is currently available to meet the state’s financial obligations.”
Fiscal year-to-date receipts through February were $130.8 billion, nearly $5.4 billion below the Governor’s Budget estimates, or 4 percent.
Disbursements for the fiscal year through February were $148.5 billion, nearly $7.9 billion less than the proposed budget projections, or 5 percent.
Year-to-date personal income tax receipts through February were below the Governor’s Budget expectations by $4.5 billion, or 5.5 percent. Corporate tax receipts were $1.1 billion below fiscal year estimates, or 4.9 percent. Sales and use taxes were $487 million above expectations for the fiscal year, or 2.2 percent.
As the chief fiscal officer of California, Controller Cohen is responsible for accountability and disbursement of the state’s financial resources. The controller has independent auditing authority over government agencies that spend state funds. She is a member of numerous financing authorities, and fiscal and financial oversight entities including the Franchise Tax Board. She also serves on the boards for the nation’s two largest public pension funds.
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