UCLA economic forecast says California will outpace nation in job growth

A new forecast says California will continue to outpace the nation in job growth but its uneven economic recovery will leave unskilled workers behind.

The UCLA Anderson Forecast for the third quarter predicts California’s jobless rate will be around 8.9 percent this year – higher than the U.S. as a whole – but the gap will narrow over the next two years. Job growth this year will be less than 3 percent but real personal income will increase around 2 percent – slightly more than the U.S. rate.

But forecasters say not everyone in the state is benefiting equally.

Coastal economies with higher-paying investment, technology and trade jobs have been growing, while other areas with a lot of low-skill and manual-skill jobs, such as construction, have been stagnating.