Placer County Business, Economy & Jobs Digest

The Exclusive Poultry Inc. agreed to pay $3.8 million in wages, damages and penalties in part for hiring children for dangerous work. The case is one of hundreds federal labor officials investigated last year.

Higher-income workers are more likely to work from home, analysis of recent census data shows. Lower-income workers can face long and solitary commutes to get to work.

Harjinder Shergill-Chima has been appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom as the new director of the California State Lottery. Shergill-Chima, the first Indian American to serve in the role, takes over for Alva Johnson.

Californians have said they experienced added difficulty over the past year in getting car insurance. Insurer rates have gone up more than usual.

Profits have been down for cannabis operators in California in recent years. While the industry is still big business in the state, it faces an uncertain future.

A recent investigation by Voice of San Diego revealed that nonprofits that provide staff at local stadiums could be raising money without doing charity work, while also paying labor below minimum wage and under the table. Now, multiple law enforcement agencies are investigating.

An Alameda County judge ruled on Nov. 22 that the city of Oakland thwarted a proposed coal export terminal. The judge will rule if the developer who sued is entitled to $159 million in damages or moving forward with the project.

The California Faculty Association is seeking a 12 percent pay increase, while university officials counter with 5 percent in each of the next three years.

With nine months’ experience in the Assembly, Liz Ortega will lead the Labor committee after a strike-filled summer and several wins for low-wage workers.

A new study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has found that approximately 3,400 kilotons of lithium are located below Imperial County in Southern California. This could produce more than $7 billion in lithium carbonate annually, helping power significant numbers of electric vehicles.

California’s minimum hourly wage will rise from $15.50 to $16 on Jan. 1. Ahead of this, retailers like Costco and Target have raised their minimum pay in recent years.

A graduate student workers union and the University of Southern California have agreed to a three-year labor contract that averts a looming strike. The deal calls for pay increases each of the three years.

About 475,000 people moved to the Golden State in 2022. That's the third-highest number of people moving to a state in the U.S., trailing only Texas and Florida.

A new study by Forbes shows that four cities in the Golden State—Los Angeles, Fresno, San Diego and Sacramento—are among the 21 worst cities in the United States for holiday travel. Forbes looked at a variety of factors including car accidents, hotel prices and air travel.

Fulcrum Bioenergy, a California-based firm that seeks to turn plastics into jet fuel, has defaulted on $289 million in bond funding and put a major project on hold. This comes as several U.S. Senators wrote to the IRS urging that similar companies not receive federal tax credits.

HERBL, one of California’s biggest cannabis companies, collapsed earlier this year. The company, which sold $700 million of cannabis last year, reportedly shorted the state $17 million in taxes.

Hundreds of OpenAI workers signed a letter threatening to quit if the company’s entire board didn’t resign and if two former executives weren’t brought back. This came after the board fired one of the execs, Sam Altman, who then joined the other exec, Greg Brockman, at Microsoft.

The utility giant got the okay from the California Public Utilities Commission to hike rates next year. Average increases will range between about $10 and $33, depending on whether customers receive gas, electricity or both from PG&E.

California has some of the highest gas prices in the United States. These prices might ease mildly in the months ahead.

The California Public Utilities Commission will vote on Nov. 16 about raising PG&E bills. The utility giant is lobbying the state about one of the proposals that’s been put forward.

The Elmore Desert Ranch gets 22.5 billion gallons of water from the Colorado River, almost as much as is cleared for Scottsdale, Ariz. And that’s just a fraction of the 386.5 billion gallons from the river going to 19 other families in Imperial Valley.

NextDoor is among the latest California tech companies to lay off staff. As many as 200 company workers could be affected.

Some venues in the San Diego area rely on paying workers under the table in cash, for rates that work out below minimum wage, an investigation by Voice of San Diego has found.

Young people are stuck earning low wages, working long hours—often while going to school—and often without benefits or work protections. Their hardships may hamper the state’s economy for years to come, researchers say.

A new report by the UCLA Labor Center finds that young workers in California face a variety of challenges. These include pay barely above minimum wage, discrimination, and high rents.

Redfin data shows that tens of thousands of more people look to leave California than buy homes in the Golden State. There’s an exception, however: the Sacramento region, which remains one of the hottest homebuying markets in the country.

Two theme park giants, Six Flags and Cedar Fair, announced they are merging. It could have potential impacts on California theme parks like Six Flags Magic Mountain, Knott’s Berry Farm and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.

California’s population of homeless veterans has plateaued despite billions of dollars in state spending to create housing for former service members. Now, Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to shift resources to focus on veterans with serious mental health conditions.

The USA is likely to see consistent job growth from the transition to net zero, but the gains will be unevenly distributed, shows a new analysis conducted by Imperial College London researchers and published in Nature Climate Change.

Four technology companies, including Google, have announced they're laying off close to 1,700 workers in California. This follows tech layoffs that have been underway since last year.

The acquisition includes the Daou brand, Daou Mountain Estate, four luxury wineries, and around 400 acres of vineyards in Adelaida District of Paso Robles in San Luis Obispo County.

The San Diego Union-Tribune, which has operated for 154 years, sold to controversial Alden Global Capital last year. It’s not looking great for the paper’s future.