An epicenter of the burst of the dot-com and the housing bubbles, California’s economy had a rough time during the 2000s. The state lost 40 percent of its manufacturing jobs, saw unemployment spike and faced severe budget challenges. However, indicators are finally pointing in the right direction. Unemployment is under 8 percent, the state has posted three straight years of manufacturing job gains, and California saw 3.5 percent GDP growth in 2012 after a 5 percent contraction in 2009 and anemic gains in 2010 and 2011.
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