California Job Losses & Retirement Costs

Here is a great chart from today's Wall Street Journal showing the huge disparity between California job losses in the private sector vs. public sector. Since the beginning of 2008, California's private sector has shed nearly 1.2 million jobs, while employment in the public sector has remained essentially flat.

The op-ed piece ("Public Pensions and Our Fiscal Future") also suggests that the California's state government will spend over $6 billion this year on retirement benefits (more than on education), with this figure expected to grow by 15% next year! If these stats aren't dire enough, the annual cost of servicing California's retirement obligations is projected to grow to $30 billion within a decade (more than 5x today's level).

I am not sure what to say other thank goodness I don't live in California!