Posts Tagged: business climate

SB 598 threatens California small businesses with higher health care costs

Stethoscope and calculator, image by Michail Petrov

by CLAUDIA OLIVEIRA posted 08.22.2023

OPINION – Rising inflation has led to soaring healthcare costs for businesses. Compounding these challenges is SB 598, a bill currently under consideration in the California Legislature that, if enacted, it would further burden businesses, especially small businesses, with additional costs while introducing low-value care into the state’s healthcare system, harming patients across California.

Amid policy and pandemic, will California employment rebound?

A worker inspects planks at a California timber yard. (Photo: sirtravelalot, via Shutterrstock)

by SETH SANDRONSKY posted 02.25.2022

The year 2021 was a long year battling COVID-19. As coronavirus restrictions ease under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s SMARTER Plan in 2022, we turn to the Golden State’s labor market. Is it on track to rebound to its pre-pandemic shape? Here are the employment numbers, then and now.