The good news was tempered somewhat by the fact that California did not quite keep pace with the nation as a whole which boosted its merchandise exports by 19.4 percent. Also, California has a relatively high percentage of re-exports, which are items previously imported into the United States that have had no significant value added prior to being shipped abroad. “California’s numerous trading companies do a superb job sourcing goods from around the world and matching them with foreign customers,” O’Connell said. “That’s why California’s re-export trade leaped by 36.3 percent in November.” Exports of goods manufactured in California, meanwhile, increased just 6.7 percent. Overall U.S. manufactured exports, in contrast, jumped 16.7 percent, O’Connell reported.

California made up 11.1 percent of all U.S. merchandise exports in November, but just 9.6 percent of its manufactured exports, Beacon reported. California’s exports of nonmanufactured goods represented 12.4 percent of the nation’s exports of those goods, but fully 19.8 percent of the nation’s shipments of re-exported goods came from California.

As a result, California’s export trade has a less immediate positive impact on the state’s economy and on its propensity for job creation, O’Connell said. “California manufacturers have become exceptionally efficient in increasing output without adding new hires,” O’Connell said in the release. “And the goods they produce tend to be of increasingly higher value. That’s why it is possible for the value of our manufactured exports to rise without there being a commensurate level of job growth.”

That also explains why California lost 4,400 manufacturing jobs between November 2010 and November 2009, based on seasonally adjusted numbers from the California Employment Development Department, despite California adding 110,900 jobs overall, O’Connell said.

The company, a subsidiary of Japan’s Sony Corp. also cut back last March, when it laid off nearly 250 people and eliminated nearly 100 open positions. Company staff was informed of the latest cuts in a memo Monday and through videos by the studio co-chairs on an employee Web site. “Our industry is affected by two things: It’s affected by the economy, of course, and it’s affected by technology,” co-chair Amy Pascal says in the video. “Over the last two years, it’s changed people’s DVD buying habits, which has had a huge effect on our company and the industry at large.”

The home video market has been declining as people have not been buying videos as often, and instead turn to rentals, which are far less profitable for the industry.

There is one possible silver lining in all these dark clouds, however – exports may be improving. According to Nickelsburg, “In trade and manufacturing, there is new evidence that demand for California-produced goods is increasing. He believes that the keys to the California recovery are exports of manufactured and agricultural goods, a recovery in U.S., increased public works construction and increased investment in business equipment and software.

“Widespread misconceptions about the manufacturing sector in California are part of the problem,” said Perry Wong, senior economist and one of the authors of the report. “People don’t understand that manufacturing is an integral part of the high-tech and clean-tech economy. If Californians want to build the future economic recovery on high-tech and retain highly skilled workers, they have to address the underlying issues of this sector now.”

Most of the cutbacks came from government: 11,400 job cuts in federal government and 2,800 from state and local agencies, as municipalities scaled back their services to cope with the crippling effects of tax declines and budget cuts. Adding to the decline in government employment, every major job category lost jobs in May except for education and health care, which added 2,100. Construction companies cut 11,300 positions; manufacturing, 10,400; professional and business services, 10,900; retail, wholesale, transportation and utilities, 8,300; leisure and information, 8,100; and hospitality, 2,700.

As shocking as these numbers are, what is even more shocking is that the State Government doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it, as they are mostly concerned with their own survival. Early indications are that the Obama administration stimulus money is going mostly to save the jobs of existing State workers and bureaucrats, who are already doing relatively well. Very little of the funding seems to be going into job creation, economic development or innovative programs to help small business.