“No, California’s economy is not growing faster than the rest of the country,” Conn Carroll writes at the Washington Examiner, debunking the premise of yesterday’s article a lefty crosstown rival, the Post on “California’s economic comeback.” as Carroll writes:
Problem is, a falling unemployment rate does not mean California is creating jobs faster than the rest of the country. It could also mean that more unemployed college graduates are going back to school or elderly Californians are retiring early. The Labor Department does not release state level Current Population Survey data on labor participation rates, but we can compare Employer Survey data from California to the country as a whole.
Over the course of 2012, California added 226,000 jobs, or 1.59 percent growth. Meanwhile, the rest of the nation added 2.17 million jobs, or 1.63 percent job growth. Now 1.63 is close to 1.59, but 1.59 is still lower. So California while is not doing much worse than the rest of the nation when it comes to creating jobs, it is definitely not doing any better.
Do they have any fact checkers at The Post?
Well, Patrick B. Pexton, their current ombudsman, is scheduled to leave at the end of the month, and as he wrote in his farewell announcement,“It is possible that I’ll be The Washington Post’s last independent ombudsman and that this chair will empty at the conclusion of my two-year term Feb. 28.” No word yet if he’s finish off his predecessor’s correction stack from 2008-2009 before he heads out, so I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for this latest article to be proofed.
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