After robots take over our jobs, what is next? Guaranteed incomes? A public service job creation program? More conferences on “the future of work”? Today, not a week goes by without a new study being released or conference convened on robots replacing jobs or a newspaper account of a new use of robots taking the […]

Michael Larsen is one of the deans of literary agents in the United States, who established Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents in 1972 and has represented hundreds of books since. Last month, at the sold-out San Francisco Writers Conference he acknowledged the mounting challenges facing authors in the past few years—the stagnant book industry sales, the shuttering […]

Since 2009 at Fox & Hounds, we have periodically discussed the structural shifts in California’s employment, primarily the movement away from the employer-employee relation with some expectation of stability, to alternative and more contingent work arrangements. This movement has included the rise of independent contracting and freelance work, as well as the rise of employment […]

How did San Francisco, which welcomed newcomers for so long, decide that the tech workers flocking to it were no longer welcome? And why should those of us outside of tech care about this? Over the past few years, tech workers have been blamed not only for the city’s worsening traffic congestion and sky-high housing, […]

Ignore the media meme of the past few years about the bountiful employment opportunities available. Today, though the official unemployment rate remains low, nearly every job opening is receiving tens of applicants (if not more), and being hired requires a lot of effort and often luck. Which is why in 2017, if you have a […]

Since February 2010, California has been experiencing near-steady monthly job growth, with a net gain of over 2.3 million payroll jobs from early 2010 through October 2016. How does this lengthy job expansion compare to previous expansions in California? How long can it continue?

What will Donald Trump’s election mean for California employment? Let’s start with a caveat: it is too early to tell in any detail. Trump has never held office, and we don’t yet know how his employment policies will play out. Certainly, the dire warnings in the past two weeks by the CNN and MSNBC commentators […]

At community colleges throughout California, Career Technical Education (CTE) is attracting sharply increased funding and growth. Focused on training for the “new technician” jobs, CTE offers promise of building a new middle class. Is this so? How widespread an impact can CTE have? What are these “new technician” jobs? How many “new technician” jobs really […]

As we come to Labor Day 2016, we find ourselves with the following Jobs Perplex: With the main employment numbers being so positive nationwide—the unemployment rate low and payroll job growth high–why is dissatisfaction and anxiety about employment so widespread? Here in California, the most recent state unemployment rate for July 2016 is 5.5%, among […]

Though it has been little more than a month since its passage on June 23, Brexit already is fading in the rear mirror in American policy discussions. We should not let it disappear so easily, for it has lessons for the United States and for us in California . Brexit not only laid bare the […]