In the current debates over joblessness in California, reference is made to California of previous decades when jobs were plentiful. In particular, the 1950s California is singled out as a golden age of employment, when jobs were available and workers in a wide range of blue collar and manufacturing jobs as well as white collar jobs could make a decent living.
Is this accurate? What does it mean for California employment strategies going forward?
As indicated in job data provided by Ms. Bonnie Graybill and Mr. Spencer Wong of
the Employment Development Department, 1950s California was a period in which jobs sought workers. Unemployment was consistently under 5% In January 1951, the state unemployment rate was 5%. Over the next nearly seven years, through November 1957, the rate did not go over 5%, and was under 4% for much of the time.
Moreover, the job growth was dramatic. In January 1951 the total number of nonfarm jobs stood at 3,406,900. By November 1957, it was up to 4,524,300. This number is a far cry from the 14.2 million jobs we have today (or the 15.2 million jobs we reached in July 2007). But this seven year period represented the largest
percentage gain the state has seen.
Beyond the data, the dynamism of the 1950s California economy is captured in Kevin Starr’s Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance 1950-1963,
published earlier this year and the latest in his masterly multi-volume history
of the state. Starr sets out a state economy, fueled by defense and aerospace
plants, and an accompanying explosion in housing for the workers coming to
these plants. Whole new communities spring up overnight, in the San Fernando
Valley, in the western half of San Francisco, in the Central Valley and San
Diego suburbs.
And the state’s economy includes vibrant industries in sectors as diverse as garment manufacturing, restaurants andhotels, and financial services. Moreover, the workers in the non-professional manufacturing jobs and service jobs, often in single-earner households, are able to earn enough to purchase cars and homes and vacations and take advantageof a high quality, highly subsidized public education system.
What has happened over the past 50 years?
To a great extent, the 1950s and early 1960s represented a very brief historical
interlude in which the both the American economy in general and the California
economy in particular were so dominant after World War II, their productivity
so much greater than other countries, that an economy of abundance could be
maintained. This dominance began to change during the 1970s, and the rise of
the global economy and global competition has eroded it steadily since. Today,
not only are the defense, aerospace and heavy manufacturing jobs long gone from California, but also global economics has caught up with a range of other
financial and business services jobs.
The job abundance of the 1950s was due primarily to forces outside of state
government, not state policies. Nonetheless 1950s California is important in
understanding an economy of abundance and in defining the challenge as we look ahead. State policies need to be tailored to private sector job growth, to innovation and to productivity advantages. These were the hallmarks of 1950s California jobs, and our best chance to get back to the future.