Update: Texas vs. the Unionocracy of California

Update on this CD post:

The chart above displays employment levels in California compared to Texas, monthly from January 2000 to December 2009. The employment level in California fell below 16 million jobs in December for the first time since May 2000, 9 and-a-half years ago. From the peak employment level of more than 17 million in July 2007, California has lost more than one million jobs in the last two and-a-half years. In contrast, Texas has lost only about 100,000 jobs from the peak level in December 2008.

The chart below displays monthly government and private sector employment in California from January 2000, showing that most of the job losses have taken place in the private sector. From the 2007 peak, private sector employment has fallen by 1,133,000 jobs through December 2009 to the lowest level since November 1999, more than ten years ago, compared to a loss of only 57,000 government jobs from the peak in 2008.

As George Will wrote in January:

"California, a laboratory of liberalism, is spiraling downward, driven by a huge budget deficit. It took years for compassionate liberalism to make California's welfare menu contribute to the state becoming an importer of Mexico's poverty. It took years for servile liberalism to turn the state into a "unionocracy," run by and for unionized public employees, such as public safety employees who can retire at 50 and receive 90 percent of the final year's pay for life. California's economy is being suffocated by the weight of government."

Exhibit A: More than a million jobs lost in California's private sector, shrinking private sector employment to the lowest level since 1999. And those jobs disappeared fast - it took about nine years to add one million private-sector jobs in California, and only about two years for those million jobs to vanish.