State lost few jobs from business moves, study says

California is losing relatively few jobs as a result of businesses relocating to other states, with most business moves involving relocations within the state, according to a study.

The number of California jobs moving to other states because of business relocations is a relatively inconsequential 11,000 per year out of more than 18 million jobs, according to the report by the Public Policy Institute of California.

The findings stand in contrast to claims by various industry groups, including the California Chamber of Commerce, that California, the country’s most populous state, is gripped by a hostile business climate.

The claim is a constant one for business interests in the state, and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has routinely echoed it to propose policies backed by business groups, including resisting calls for tax increases to help balance a state budget that routinely suffers shortfalls.

The report by the Public Policy Institute said other factors weighed far more heavily in the state’s employment picture.

“Business births, deaths, contractions and expansions have a much greater effect on employment,” a summary of the report said.

“Establishment relocations within the state are much more common than relocations into and out of the state,” the report added. “Among intrastate relocations, short-distance moves are more common than long-distance moves.”

“This short-distance pattern suggests that businesses are not moving primarily in search of differently skilled or cheaper labor or a more friendly business climate,” the report said. “Rather, it is more consistent with businesses looking to be closer to more productive business clusters, a more affordable real estate market, or workers or customers who have themselves moved toward less expensive real estate.”

The biggest employment shifts in California in recent years were toward inland and less urbanized regions.

Riverside and San Bernardino counties were the largest beneficiaries of intrastate moves, gaining more than 54,000 net jobs from elsewhere in the state from 1992 to 2004. The Sacramento region in the central part of Northern California came in second, gaining 15,000 net jobs over the period, the report said. The biggest loser of jobs to other parts of the state was the greater Los Angeles region, or Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties, which posted a net loss over the period of more than 50,000 jobs.