Why the integrity of jobs data is important to California

Scheduling note: WhatMatters will be resting for Labor Day weekend and will return to your inboxes on Tuesday.

Concern over the reliability of federal job information has been growing among California economists and policy experts, after President Donald Trump fired the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner earlier this month, writes CalMatters’ Levi Sumagaysay.

Every month, the bureau releases unemployment numbers and the consumer price index. After seeing a sharp hiring slowdown in July’s jobs report, Trump, without evidence, accused the commissioner of rigging the data. He then nominated the chief economist at a right-wing think tank — one that helped draft Project 2025 — to lead the agency.

Now, economists are ringing the alarm about the possible politicization of data from the bureau, which is used to inform a multitude of things like cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security, funding for food stamp benefits, tax-bracket thresholds and more. Besides potential global implications, state agencies across the country could be undermined. 

Some examples specific to California, include:

• The Employment Development Department partners with the federal bureau to release monthly unemployment rate and job estimates. 
• The Department of Finance relies on the data for economic and revenue forecasting, and crunching numbers related to the state budget, which includes the minimum wage and cost of living.
• California community colleges depend on jobs data and labor market information to help figure out supply and demand in different industries.

State agencies and other groups that don’t use the federal data directly, however, still utilize research that relies on that data to stay informed and gather insight.

• Chris Hoene, executive director of the California Budget & Policy Center: “(That data) allows consumers, investors, people thinking about retirement and businesses to make reasonably informed decisions. If you pull out federal data, we’re left with how people are feeling about things and the stock market, and that’s a big void.”

Read more here.

Amid Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. and his threats to send more federal troops in other Democratic-led cities, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that he plans to deploy new “crime suppression” teams in six California regions, reports CalMatters’ Alexei Koseff.

Made up of California Highway Patrol officers, the teams will work with local officials to combat crime in San Diego, the Inland Empire, Los Angeles, the Central Valley, Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area. The move is an expansion of similar intervention efforts the state made last year in Oakland, Bakersfield and San Bernardino.

The governor denied that expanding the crime suppression teams was in response to Trump. Instead, he argued that Trump’s deployment of federal troops into cities was “authoritarian,” and that Newsom’s administration was “trying to be responsive to the people we serve.”

Newsom’s court battle with Trump over the president’s deployment of federal troops in L.A. in June is still ongoing.

Read more here.

After a heatwave scorched Southern California this week, legislators today will decide the fate of a bill that would protect residents from dangerous indoor heat, writes CalMatters’ Alejandra Reyes-Velarde.

Currently held in the Assembly appropriations committee’s suspense file, the measure would make it a state policy for dwelling units to “maintain a safe maximum indoor temperature.” Though a state report recommended a maximum indoor temperature of 82 degrees, the bill itself mandates no specific temperature.

Landlord groups oppose the measure, arguing that they shouldn’t have to pay to upgrade buildings due to a problem they didn’t cause. Meanwhile, renter advocates are concerned that without specifics, the measure wouldn’t give landlords enough incentive to keep apartments safe and comfortable for tenants. 

• Memphis Perez, who lives in L.A.’s Lincoln Heights neighborhood: “The temperatures here in L.A. are rising every year. It’s only fair for (landlords) to do their part and provide a survivable experience in an apartment.”

Read more here.

With nearly 700 bills in the Senate and Assembly suspense files, lawmakers in the appropriations committees are busy today weeding out in rapid-fire fashion legislative proposals that have new spending attached. Bills that make the cut today will still need the Legislature’s final approval by Sept. 12 to land on the governor’s desk.