Report Entrepreneurship among California’s Low-Skilled Workers By Magnus Lofstrom Apr 1, 2010 The number of self-employed in California has grown considerably over the last three decades. Those with a high-school diploma or less—the low-skilled—make up a significant portion of this growth. Is business ownership a stable and financially rewarding option for them? This report explores this group of entrepreneurs and finds most low-skilled business owners have lower annual earnings than do low-skilled wage-earners—despite working more hours per week.
Report Closing the Gap: Meeting California’s Need for College Graduates By Hans Johnson, Ria Sengupta Bhatt Apr 16, 2009 California faces a shortage of almost a million college-educated workers by 2025. Taking a practical approach, this report finds that this education-skills gap could be cut in half by modest investments in programs aimed at expanding college attendance rates, increasing transfer rates from community colleges to four-year institutions, and boosting graduation rates at four-year institutions. As the state’s economy becomes increasingly reliant on highly skilled workers, a confluence of trends—the retirement of baby boomers, and demographic shifts toward groups with historically low rates of college attendance—makes these investments all the more crucial to the state’s continued economic success.
press release Out-Of-State Labor No Panacea: California Can’t Import Its Way Out Of Shortage Of Educated Workers May 23, 2007
California Economic Policy, Report A Decade of Living Wages: What Have We Learned? By David Neumark, Scott Adams Jul 1, 2005 Living wages seek to raise the income of low-wage workers by mandating higher wages. However, such wage increases may also have adverse employment effects, leading employers to reduce employment of less-skilled labor. This study notes that although living wages deliver some benefits to low-income families, additional policies are needed to help the most disadvantaged.
