New Report Gives A Snapshot of California

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California has the ninth largest economy in the world, its workers are staying unemployed longer and home prices are rising. These are a few of the tidbits in a new report by the state’s non-partisan Legislative Analyst.  

The Legislative Analyst gives us California in a snapshot.  The state’s economy is number nine, right between Italy and Russia.  

Only about a third of the 1.4 million jobs lost during the recession have been recovered, and half the unemployed have been without work longer than six months.   Home prices are beginning to rise.

1 in 2 of California’s public K-12 students is from a low-income family and 1 in 4 is an English language learner.  Smoking has decreased, but obesity, heart attacks and diabetes have increased.  

The state’s average driver spends $4,600  a year on gas and vehicle expenses.  Highway congestion resulted in 86 million hours of delays in 2011.

And we’ll end on a high note: property and violent crime rates dropped 56 percent between 1991 and 2011 and are at historic lows.