California’s Manufacturing Job Loss

The California Employment Development Department reported in June 2003 that California lost another 4,000 manufacturing jobs in June, bringing the total loss to 293,000 since January of 2001. A total of 1.59 million manufacturing currently exist in the state, which is roughly 8% of the nation's total.

A 2002 report by the Milken Institute found that the cost of doing business in California was 32% higher than the national average. States like Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Nevada had business costs that were 85% or less of the national average, which means that California's costs are nearly 50% higher than its border states in some industry sectors.