California now enters September with no budget in place and a $19 billion budget deficit. As we edge closer to issuing coveted IOUs, the spin cycle is out in full force. A report was issued showing that CEOs at the 50 firms that laid off the most workers since the recession started earned an average of $12 million. I guess the recovery will depend on who you are asking. Here in California, looking at income data is a good indicator on how the “rest of us” are doing. The state of California depends heavily on personal income taxes. Nearly half the state budget revenue comes from this one source alone. Common sense would tell you that if more people were working, personal income tax collections would be up. That is not the case. You would also expect hiring to pick up and this is something California is not seeing either (with a 23 percent underemployment rate). The definition of recovery has gotten muddled in this deep recession, the deepest since the Great Depression.
Let us look at 10 charts and try to examine what they mean for the future of California.
Chart 1 – Unemployment Insurance
