Why is it so hard to hire employees in California?

American Thinker ^ | 08/04/2017 | Rick Moran

[SeekAndFind]

The "official" rate of unemployment in California is a sparkling 4.7%, and according to state labor experts, the job market is tightening.

But how many more people would be employed if it weren't so darned expensive to hire and keep new people on the payroll?

How expensive?  Here are the real-world consequences of government policies that make it so easy for employees to sue their companies for a variety of imaginary offenses.

Coyote Blog:

California is a uniquely difficult place for companies trying to actually employ people rather than robots.   Owning a business in that state, you could be forgiven that the legislation actually embarked on a program to explicitly punish companies for hiring people.  The state has spent the last ten or twenty years defining a myriad of micro offenses employees for which  may sue employers and make large recoveries -- everything from having to work through lunch to having the wrong chair and not getting to sit in that chair at the right times of day.

To illustrate this, I want to show you the insurance application I just received.  Most companies have something called employment practices liability insurance.  This insurance helps pay legal and some settlement expenses if and (nowadays) when a company is sued by an employee for things like discrimination or harassment or any of the variety of sue-your-boss offenses California has established.  In that multi-page application, after the opening section about name and address, the very first risk-related question asks this:

They specifically ask about your California employment, and no other state, in order to evaluate your risk.

[brianr10]

The author talks about Missouri without mentioning it anywhere else. Does he mean California?

[factoryrat]

The cost of living in california is too high for most of the lower to middle class workers.

Between outrageous real estate prices, ridiculously high taxes, and the ever crushing burden of state regulations, outside of the government subsidized illegals, silicon valley techies, and welfare parasites, nobody can really afford to live there.

I work with people who escaped from california, and they can’t believe how much cheaper it is to live in eastern WA and OR.

I told them that when I moved out here from the upper midwest, that the cost of living is way more expensive here than in the midwest.

When they told me how much it cost to live in california, I wondered how they actually managed to survive.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Forty years ago there was a TV program on Okies in California.
The original Okie fled the 1930s dust bowl and found work in California.
The son of that Okie grew up and found work in California.

The grandson of that Okie born and grew up in California chose to go on the public dole.

Today the great-grandson of that original Okie is probably still on the public dole.

[canalabamian]

Que no hablan?

[bigbob]

There was as story in my dad’s family (from Missouri not Arkansas, but close enough) about one relative who moved to CA ind the dust bowl era. The story goes, he asked his wife if she could live on half what she was earning out there and she allowed that she probably could if she had to. He replied that was good, because from then on he was planning to live on the other half!

Maybe a better story than a factual one, but there’s some truth in the trend you cite. I remember that TV program from my yout’.

[A_Former_Democrat]

I remember talking at a CHRISTMAS Party to the sponsor’s HR Head. When we talked about their LA office, she sarcastically laughed at all the employment compliance stupidity she had to put up with there. SHH

And this was probably 8 years ago.

[Two Kids' Dad]

Two Kids’ Mom got laid off in April after being with the same company for 20 years (in California). She’s still looking for a replacement job. The process is insane because all employers do their hiring based on online applications and those are processed through third-party sites who make the applicants’ information public and then the spam emails flood in while the actual employers reject the applications as being overqualified or not having the proper college degree or whatever.

It ain’t pretty in CA for someone looking to actually get a job and pull their own weight. The system seems to be all about keeping the system running, not about matching employers with potential employees.

[Mastador1]

The liberals and gaia worshippers in California don't care about people having jobs, they only care about gaia and themselves, that's why so much industry has been forced out of the state, they don't give a crap if it collapses as long as the elite (the politicians and wealthy) have theirs. Socialism always working for the few!

[Brilliant]

The real question is why do employers relocate to CA given the high costs there? And the high regulatory burden?

California’s economy is really dependent on the stock market. As long as tech companies can raise money from stock sales, they don’t need to make a profit. But there are a lot of things that can go wrong in that calculation.

[Angels27]

I live in Southern California. I bought my condo in 2001 before the house prices skyrocketed. There is no way I coukd afford a house, much less a condo today. My mortgage is now half of what people pay for rent in my area. Its a good thing because at the start of the year I was laid off from my job of 17 years because the company centralized to corporate headquarters in Chicago and I had to take significantly less to get my new job.

No way I could make it if I was renting!

[Svartalfiar]

I live in Southern California. I bought my condo in 2001 before the house prices skyrocketed. There is no way I coukd afford a house, much less a condo today. My mortgage is now half of what people pay for rent in my area.

Sounds like you could sell your condo, move to a proper state, and then buy a house and not have to work for several years. Or just rent it out and make $$!

[Angels27]

“Sounds like you could sell your condo, move to a proper state,”

Yes, I have thought about that. Family ties keep me here though.