SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Republicans launched the latest round of California vs. Florida Friday, warning Gov. Gavin Newsom that comparing his state’s economy to Florida’s — and, by extension, his leadership to that of Gov. Ron DeSantis — is a “comparison Newsom is likely going to regret.”
The GOP issued the warning to the California governor in an email titled, “Florida vs. California, state jobs edition.” In fact, the latest numbers are a glass-half-open, glass-half-full proposition that give both states’ governors reason to brag — and find fault.
California’s job gains over the last year were the nation’s best, and it no longer has the nation’s worst unemployment rate. Six months ago, it was the highest in the nation (6.5%).
But the state’s June rate (4.2%) was the nation’s 10th worst — higher than the nation’s (3.6%) and Florida’s (2.8%).
California’s jobless rate was higher than the nation’s because the state is highly dependent on tourism, an industry hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s also suffered as lower wage sectors like hospitality and retail have had difficulty recruiting and retaining workers.
While California’s labor force continues to grow, the creation of about 20,000 jobs in June was far below this year’s monthly average, “indicating that the economic momentum is slowing,” said Sung won Sohn, president of Los Angeles-based SS Economics.
Republicans saw the numbers as a new opening to denounce Newsom, who for months has engaged in a cross-country brawl with DeSantis over whose state is more welcoming and successful.
“Newsom shouldn’t be running ads. He should be taking notes!” said the email from Tommy Piggott, Republican National Committee rapid response director.
Newsom on July 4 ran an ad on Florida Fox News stations urging Florida residents to “join us in California, where we still believe in freedom.” His office released a statement Friday touting its economic progress and did not mention Florida or DeSantis.
On Friday, he called out Texas Gov. Greg Abbott with full-page ads in three of the state’s newspapers attacking GOP anti-abortion policies and saying his own recently-signed gun control measures “protect the right to life.”
While Newsom, DeSantis and Abbott are widely viewed as future presidential candidates. DeSantis is often mentioned as a possible challenger to former President Donald Trump in 2024. Newsom has said he has no interest in that race, but could become a national candidate in subsequent races.
The Newsom ad, which charges Republican leaders are “criminalizing women and doctors,” ran weeks after the Supreme Court reversed a 49-year-old ruling that women have a constitutional right to an abortion.
The national Republican Party’s communications/research department sent out an email Friday saying “Failed Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom really wants to be compared to Florida – he’s even running ads. But based on today’s new state jobs data, that’s a comparison Newsom is likely going to regret.”
It said Florida is “among the top states for jobs recovered since the pandemic and has one of the lowest unemployment rates. California has yet to recover all of the jobs lost during the pandemic and has one of the worst unemployment rates in the nation.”
The state unemployment data released Friday by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics did show California progress. The state, it said, gained 850,600 jobs over the year, the most in the country, with Texas and Florida second.
Republicans looked at the recovery a different way, saying California has recovered 93% of jobs lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, ranking it 24th. Florida ranks eighth in percentage recovered.
California also logged the nation’s biggest unemployment rate decreases since June 2021, down 3.7 percentage points. But 30 states had rates last month at or below the national average.
Overall, the year began impressively, so “we shouldn’t overnterpret a slowdown in one month,” said Taner Osman, research manager at Beacon Economics and the Center for Economic Forecasting at the University of California, Riverside.
“Still, California’s tight labor market has not eased up and will continue to act as a constraint on job growth,” he said.
