"California's booming economy is one of the world's largest, but a peek behind the curtain exposes the forbidding reality of a statewide job market that is ranked as one of the nation's worst. There's no sugarcoating the situation in California. Our economic growth is weak compared to other states, said Jeff Bellisario, executive director of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute."
"Hiring trends, however, paint a starkly different picture of the state's economic health: California has one of the nation's weakest job markets. California is no longer the land of plentiful jobs, said Scott Anderson, chief U.S. economist with BMO Capital Markets. This is true even for California's technology industry, which has reached new heights of stock market capitalization but sheds jobs on a regular basis. Measuring the annual pace of job growth among the states, California ranked 37th in 2025."
California's economy ranks among the largest globally by GDP while statewide hiring and payroll growth lag the national average. Technology firms, including major AI players, have driven market-cap gains even as many tech companies reduce headcount. Annual job-growth rankings fell to 37th in 2025 from 32nd in 2024, reflecting weak payroll additions. Longstanding hiring costs and regulatory burdens have discouraged employer hiring. Structural factors and persistent regulatory and cost pressures suggest statewide job-market weakness may continue, restraining the translation of overall economic size into broad-based employment gains.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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