California Overstated Job Growth by 85% During Election
Governor Newsom prior to the 2022 elections and through the March 5, 2024 primary election has trumpeted accomplishing the highest job growth in the nation. But the US Bureau of Labor Statistics just announced that 85% of California job growth never happened.
Although the nonpartisan California Legislative Analyst Office has been estimating that the state faces a $73 billion deficit, Governor Newsom’s office has claimed the deficit is only $38 billion, due to a private sector gain of 325,000 jobs between September 2022 and September 2023, plus another 163,000 jobs from September to December 2023.
As a result, California job creation went from number one out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia to number 51. Furthermore regarding the 50,000 new jobs supposedly created in California, almost half were jobs in government.
Newsom had been counseling his allies that the Legislative Analyst Office estimates were not credible, because of the coming surge of tax revenue contributions from booming payroll contributions. Newsom argued he could balance the budget with only $8.5 billion in spending cuts, delaying about $8 billion of expenditures for a year and $13 billion from the state’s main reserves.
The Mountain Top Times announced over the weekend that when the Bureau of Labor Statistics conducted their annual March “rebenching” of monthly forecasts to match actual job records, California had overstated their 325,000 new job estimate by 277,000, or 85%.
It is normal to have prior year up or down revisions to the final employment count by as much as 20,000, but the scale of the current variance to the governor’s public statements of assurance that there is nothing wrong, brings into question the credibility of Newson’s honesty and leadership.
Although the California Constitution requires the governor to report to the Legislature every year “on the condition of the State”, Gov. Newsom who suffers from dyslexia, just cancelled the speech he intended to use to burnish his status as the presumptive Democrat Presidential candidate alternative if President Biden has another senility event.
Newsom stated that he will now depart on a Hillary Clintonesque four-day tour of the state to highlight his accomplishments and priorities.