from Hacker News

California Businesses Stop Hiring

by 11thEarlOfMar on 10/22/24, 11:41 PM with 23 comments

• by hn_throwaway_99 on 10/23/24, 12:46 AM

  Lies, damn lies, and statistics. You can usually prove whatever outcome you desire by choosing your starting and ending dates carefully.

  While I don't doubt that CA has major economic problems, they chose their time range as Jan 2022 - June 2024. The huge tech layoffs began in ~mid 2022, largely as a result of huge over-hiring during the previous 2 years. So while CA indeed had abysmal job growth numbers over that period, I'd be very interested to know what, say, the past 5 or 6 years looked like in total, including both the pandemic boom and subsequent bust.

• by JackYoustra on 10/23/24, 12:58 AM

  You're telling me that at historically low unemployment, we can't magic people out of thin air to fill jobs???

  I hope someone tells USCIS.

• by matrix87 on 10/23/24, 1:18 AM

  Hey, if these businesses are upset about the cost of housing making people too expensive, maybe they should put their thumb on the scale regarding that political issue? Or does that make too much sense?

  I mean, what are we keeping all of these SFHs in dense areas sitting around for? Just to get people to drive around more and be more expensive?

• by jmspring on 10/23/24, 12:45 AM

  Um, as a former CA business owner, there isn't a significant cost to start or support a business - aside from the annoying $800/min LLC "tax". The real problem is the fact that most people starting small businesses that want to hire people end up with people that do not want to work, are flakey, etc. We had a "successful" (paid for itself) plant business in far north eastern CA in a traditionally Summer/vacation area (open year round - paid well above median wage for the area). My wife and I also had other lives. Reliability was a huge thing. Sure people want to work - on their own terms. We couldn't get consistent help and said "we are done". This was 2021-2023.

  That's a way bigger issue than some state booga booga conspiracy bullshit.

• by the_real_cher on 10/23/24, 1:07 AM

  I can't believe that in a state with 40 million people, there was only 4700 hundred private sector jobs created?

  Is this serious?

  I'm no democrat but this article seems off.

  This data says California created 17 million new jobs.

  https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/job-growth-...

  Wheres the disconnect?