The Pacific Research Institute released a new study yesterday. The report, titled “Assessing the State of the Golden State,” analyzes indicators for income, labor, migration, and entrepreneurship and compares California to every other state. Here’s a link to the report: http://tiny.cc/huFh5

How does California rank in this study? The short answer is poor. By these measures, California is 24th in income, 48th in labor, 44th in migration, and 16th in entrepreneurship. When they combine the scores, they come up with an overall ranking of 38th.

There was a time, not that long ago, when it would have been impossible to find economic indicators that would result in California ranking in the bottom half of the states. Even worse, the trends seem to be negative. The authors used a five-year time period for their study. They point out that a three-year period would have resulted in lower scores in the income and labor categories.

The evidence is building that California has fundamental economic problems. The sooner we face those problems and start trying to address them, the sooner California can regain its position as a place of economic opportunity and leadership.