ECONOMY

An Optimistic Forecast for California: California will outperform the rest of the nation in job growth in the next two years, adding an average of more than 275,000 jobs next year, First Interstate Bancorp said in its state economic forecast. Job growth will occur in construction, manufacturing, transportation, services and trade, while retail sales will advance 6.5% next year, the bank’s chief economist, Lynn Reaser, said. The forecast echoes one by UCLA last month, which said the state was creating jobs at a faster rate than the nation as a whole for the first time since 1980.