Monday, September 24, 2012

California?



Many of you know I’m a proud (almost-native) Detroiter. I talk about my hometown all the time, especially my love for the Tigers and Wolverines football. But I have lived in California since 1974 and moved to Butte County in 1976. I’ve been here ever since. I think Chico is a fantastic place; a great place to raise a family and a marvelous place to grow a business. 

Yet, some of my friends think California’s best days are behind us. My good buddy, Professor Bill McGowan has insisted for years that our entrepreneurship students should consider Texas. Texas! It killed me and yet Bill has argued a good case. After all Texas has led the nation in job creation throughout much of the past decade. Until now! 

I was very pleased to read in a recent article in Bloomberg Businessweek that over the past twelve months California has led the nation in job creation. According to the article:

California added 365,100 nonfarm jobs in the year ending in July, a 2.6 percent increase and the state’s largest 12-month gain since 2000. That beats every other state, including Texas, which added 222,500 jobs over the past year.


Take that McGowan! Seriously, although these are challenging times for our state, we still have an unemployment rate of 10.7% (Texas, by the way, is at 7.2%) so we have a lot of work to do -- especially when it comes to creating new ventures. But I’m convinced California and Chico in particular are prime locales to start a business. 

In the coming months, keep your eyes on this blog, I think you’ll be impressed with what we’re doing in Chico to help promote new business.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-06/californias-job-growth-outpaces-texass