Institute Insights

August 2016

Another Inconvenient Truth?

The Institute is releasing Another Inconvenient Truth: To Achieve Climate Change Goals, California Must Remove Barriers to Sustainable Land Use This report examines the intersection of environmental and housing policy and highlights the importance of building sustainable communities to achieving California’s ambitious climate change goals. It offers ten policy recommendations for how the state and its regions can be more effective in locating housing in priority development areas near jobs and transit.

Building Gender Equity in the Workplace

Last week the Bay Area Council Economic Institute released its Building Gender Equity in the Workplace: A Best Practices Resource Guide. The guide provides actionable strategies and effective tools for business leaders and employers interested in advancing women in the workplace. The first-of-its-kind guide identifies six key actions areas that contribute to gender inequality in the workplace: equal pay, reducing unconscious bias, career development, workplace culture, HR policies, and advancing women to leadership positions.

The project was developed by the Bay Area Council’s Gender Equity Committee in partnership with Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s The Representation Project. The project’s regional sponsors were San Francisco 49ers, Intel, San Francisco International Airport, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Lee Hecht Harrison, Deloitte, Wells Fargo, and Suffolk Construction.

Planning for the Megaregion

On Thursday July 7, the Bay Area Council Economic Institute released The Northern California Megaregion: Innovative, Connected and Growing at an event hosted in Sacramento. The Northern California Megaregion, comprised of 21 counties is one of the fastest growing economies in the country. As the population of Northern California continues to grow, challenges in housing, land use, jobs, transportation and the environment have crossed regional boundaries and are linking cities, counties, and regions together across wider geographies

Bay Area Job Watch

This month’s Bay Area Job Watch found that the region added 121,500 jobs between June 2015 and 2016 for a gain of 3.3% compared to 1.7% for the nation and 2.9% for California. The pace of growth has slowed from the mid-summer 2015 highs although year over year gains remain robust. The state jobs report showed a gain of 40,300 jobs in June and a year over year gain of 461,100 jobs or 18.8% of the national job gain.

The job gains continue to reduce unemployment rates while the labor force continues to add workers. However, unemployment rates jumped more than expected throughout the state in June, possibly as a result of seasonal factors that will reverse in July.

Upcoming Events and Report Releases

Annual Economic Forecast
January 20, 2017
8:00am – 11:00am
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
Yellen Conference Center
101 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94105