For example, in December of 2006, when the economy was at its peak, the unemployment rate in San Francisco county was at 3.6%. At the same time, in Stanislaus County (where I live) the unemployment rate was more than double that, at 7.9%. And that was at the peak of our economic bubble when it seemed like anyone with a pulse could get a job.

Today, the unemployment rate in San Francisco county is at around 5.5%, while the unemployment rate in Stanislaus County is 11.9%. Still stubbornly double that of San Francisco.

The difference isn't political. The difference is that the Central Valley's economy was once split into three major sectors...military spending, manufacturing, and agriculture. Like much of the rest of the state, the military sector has largely evaporated in the Central Valley over the past 20 years, and is no longer a factor. The flight of manufacturing from California...and the United States in general...has also hit the Central Valley particularly hard, and the Valley is dotted with shuttered industrial areas that are more reminiscent of Detroit than anything you'd expect to see in California. While there's still a manufacturing sector here, it's a shadow of what it used to be.

That leaves agriculture, which is both low paying AND seasonal. So people not only make crap money, but they only get to make that crap money for half the year. In many parts of the Valley, your only hope to get out of agriculture is to get a government job (or to do what I do every day, and commute to an area where jobs are better). There are literally NO other options.

Politics doesn't have much to do with it.

Oh, look, Congressman Tom McClintock's 4th District, chuck full of teabaggers, is in the toilet.

eldorado county stretches from Tahoe to the foothills, and while there may be plenty of service jobs and growth on the foothill/sacramento side...up on the mountain it is still really bad. There's still a ton of commercial spaces empty and the newspaper only has a handful of jobs available. even the casinos aren't hiring as much...

but that's just my observation, I don't have any numbers to back it up

Perhaps the wine and tourism industries.

It began in the late 1990's with the technology boom. Hwy 101 corridor is studded with small tech business all the way up to Healdsburg.

Telecom, medical instrument manufacturing, semiconductors, control instruments, and other electronic components.

Bottom line, Sonoma County is an attractive place for small start-up R&D type outfits.

No one would be more in favor of a renewed boom up there, than me. Still, not completely in line with my experiences. I remember the "telecom valley" bust of the late 90s and immediately after.

I agree it is attractive, it would be more attractive with SMART rail being more than just a demonstration piece (BART all the way up to Santa Rosa or Healdsburg, even better, although no one is ever going to allow, say, the underdeck of the GGB to be used for that purpose- even though it is feasible, from an engineering perspective) ... also, more commuter flights into and out of Charles Schultz would help.

Would have, could have, should have been...back when it was economically feasible.

The Sonoma County Airport comes alive during the July encampment. You know what I mean, Vern?

And yes to all of that.

'Course, on BART, I blame Marin, more than anything.

Oh, wait...

:faceplam:

What I take from the excerpt is the same thing happening all over the country is happening in California. The rich have rebounded fairly quickly but the poor and middle class are still struggling. In California, the coastal areas are where the wealthy live and Silicon Valley where the tech boom continues to attract tons of capital. All other businesses are struggling. Our monetary policy favors the rich.

Agriculture, forests mining, oil fields are inland. A big problem for California is that the oil fields are depleted, and that the mines are not competitive with those in other countries.

Field work, woods work, and highway work tend to be slow in the winter--and those are big employers out in the boonies.