GOPer Barbour leaving office on an up note; Brown still faces job losses

From CBS Sacramento "Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour ‘Chasing Jobs’ In Calif." July 19:

Barbour told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday from California that he had already visited executives from KiOR, which is building refineries in Mississippi to convert timber products to a crude oil substitute.

The governor said he’s also meeting with executives from Stion, which will manufacture solar panels in Hattiesburg; Soladigm, which announced last year that it will make energy-efficient insulated glass in Olive Branch; and Chevron, which has extensive investments on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Chevron, based in San Ramon, Calif., announced in January that it would invest $1.4 billion to expand its Pascagoula, Miss., refinery to make premium-based oil.

Calif ranks "Dead last" in job growth

From the San Diego Reader, July 27:

More bad news on the state economy: The Business Journals’ On Numbers is reporting that California ranks dead last in the number of jobs created over the last five years.

The state had 14,068,600 non-farm jobs reported as of June 2011, down 1,009,400 from June 2006. There were fewer net jobs in three of the last five years.

Boomtowns Gulfport-Biloxi

From Businessweek (via the AP) "Mississippi job picture improves a bit in June" July 27:

Mississippi's employment picture improved slightly in June... All of the growth is in the private sector. Over the past 12 months, Mississippi has dropped 9,200 government jobs, while adding 7,500 in the private sector... the biggest gainers have been professional-business services with 3,500 jobs, leisure-hospitality with 3,000 jobs and trade, transportation and utilities with 2,200 jobs. The sector of private education and health services has added 1,200 jobs...

Photo credit - The Reid Report