Jerry Brown will speak to about 300 technology, business and community leaders with the Silicon Valley Leadership Council. As they get a little face time with the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, a lot of regular Joes on the unemployment line will be all ears.
Leading up to the primary, both Democrat Brown and his Republican counterpart, Meg Whitman, gave few substantive details about how they would get Californians back to work. Brown's speech today centers on green tech and jobs.
For her part, Whitman has talked about cutting regulation to stimulate business, but also talked about cutting government jobs as a way to deal with the state's dismal budget situation.
Brown's visit comes on the same day the new UCLA Anderson Forecast says the economy is not turning around as quickly as we all hope.
The bright spot is that Bay Area housing demand is starting to pick up. That could lead to an uptick in residential construction, but not enough to impact the state's unemployment figures. The forecast predicts that unemployment will continue to decline and average 12.1percent. That is an improvement from the record highs of March and April, however still higher than the national unemployment rate of 9.7 percent.
The Anderson Forecast also says that another 130,000 government employees can expect to lose their jobs as local governments deal with the fallout of the state's fiscal situation. The California Budget is due today, but Governor Schwarzenegger and lawmakers haven't come up with a plan they can all agree on.
No matter what Brown says to the Silicon Valley Leadership Council, it's safe to say that he'll be answering a lot of questions about jobs, jobs, jobs.
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