UCLA forecast says recovering California will outpace nation in job growth over next 2 years

A new forecast says California will outpace the nation in job growth over the next two years as it recovers from recession, but the state still hasn’t reached its potential.

The UCLA Anderson Forecast released Thursday estimates California will add 700,000 payroll jobs through 2016. Its growth rate will be slightly faster than the U.S. as a whole.

International trade and a recovering housing sector will help.

The forecast predicts the state’s unemployment rate – currently at around 7.4 percent – will dip to 5.7 percent by the end of 2016 – placing it a whisker above the national figure.

California currently has around 15 1/2 million payroll jobs – the most since the recession. But Anderson senior economist Jerry Nickelsburg estimates the state is still 1 million jobs shy of its employment potential.