Los Angeles is on a shortlist of possible locations of a new Foxconn factory.
The U.S. Department of Labor recently released its jobless claims numbers and guess what? Fewer Americans filed unemployment claims in the past month. The news is not so golden for the state of California, as jobless claims jumped nearly 1,200. Construction and manufacturing sectors contributed to the increase.
That was the bad news, now for the good news.
According to a tech publication, China-based Foxconn, a major manufacturer of electronic devices that are shipped and sold in the U.S. and other parts of the world, is thinking about building several manufacturing plants in the states. One potential location is Los Angeles.
This could, no doubt, be huge for the local and regional economies, as thousands of employees would need to fill the facilities, speculated to churn out LCD TV’s.
In September, California’s unemployment rate was 10.2 percent. Next week, we will find out how we faired in October, when the state’s Employment Development Department will release those numbers.
Here’s one more thing that just might help pump some life back into our economy: a new “clean energy jobs fund.” This special fund comes from a recently closed loophole that had allowed companies to avoid paying millions of dollars of tax in the state.
California voters overwhelming passed Proposition 39 on Tuesday. About one billion dollars is expected to be collected from those companies, each year. It’s the hope that this money will create thousands of clean tech jobs by supporting energy efficiency and renewable energy programs—like solar panels on schools.
This should help boost California’s already top-ranked clean energy sector and related industries.
According to the latest report from Environmental Entrepreneurs, California claims the top spot as the state with the most green jobs, in the third quarter of 2012.
Despite gains in this sector, the report goes on to say the growth was far less than in the two previous quarters thanks in part to regulatory uncertainty and politics like the production tax credit (PTC) for the wind industry that’s about to expire.
The executive director of Environmental Entrepreneurs shared in a recent publication how much policy matters given the slowdown. Our state elected leaders should be looking for ways to help enhance the industry that’s important to California, not take away jobs.
The California Economic Summit has fielded an Action Team working on streamlining some of our state’s regulations to cut down on uncertainty. An Action Team is also supporting ways to encourage innovation in small business. And that’s because innovation in all areas of the economy, cleantech or otherwise, is key to ensuring our state stays competitive and thrives. To check out their progress click here.
