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The population of the eight-county San Joaquin Valley, almost seven million in 2006, increased faster between 1985 and 2006, an average of 2.5 percent a year, than the state's population, which rose an average 1.7 percent a year. The labor force participation rate was lower, an average of 44 percent in the San Joaquin Valley compared to 49 percent in California, but labor force and employment growth was faster in the San Joaquin Valley than in California, up an average 2.2 and 2.5 percent a year over the past two decades in the San Joaquin Valley, compared to 1.6 and 1.8 percent a year statewide. Wages are lower in the San Joaquin Valley and wage growth slower.

What effects does rapid employment growth have in the high-unemployment and low-wage San Joaquin Valley? Most analyses suggest that faster employment growth prompts workers who are not in the labor force to seek jobs, meaning that unemployment rates can remain high due to in-migration. Unemployed workers may remain in the San Joaquin Valley because they receive welfare and unemployment insurance payments that are similar to those in other areas of the state, but have lower living costs.

In March 2008, 14 metro areas around the US had unemployment rates of 10 percent or more. of these, 12 were in California, including El Centro, 16.4 percent, and Merced, 13.7 percent. Fresno county has been adding jobs, but adding workers even faster, so that the unemployment rate remained above 10 percent in spring 2008 even as the number of farm jobs increased.

Bakersfield and Fresno are the largest US cities without access to an interstate highway, prompting talk of upgrading Highway 99 to interstate status. Upgrading the bridges and exit and entrance ramps to interstate standards would cost $15 billion, while widening the existing Highway 99 to six lanes would cost $6 billion.

The residents of the 18-county Central Valley have worse health than the rest of California because of poverty and poor habits, according to a Great Valley Center report http://www.greatvalley.org/publications/health_ind_2nd_08.aspx). Over 30 percent of children in Fresno county have asthma. The California Air Resources Board in May 2008 approved an air clean-up plan to reduce small particulates (PM-2.5) to maximum federal levels by 2014, largely by reducing emissions from diesel trucks.

Duroville. Duroville, a mobile home park for migrant laborers in Riverside county, will remain open until at least July 31, 2008 while its owner spends up to $6 million to make it habitable. Harvey Duro, a member of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians tribe, opened the 40-acre Desert Mobile Home Park known as Duroville after Riverside county cracked down on illegal mobile home parks that were home to many farm workers in 1998. Its 350 trailers house between 2,000 and 3,000 people, mostly Purepecha Indians from Michoacan.

The Purepecha began migrating to the Coachella Valley in the 1980s; most arrived in the 1990s. Some Purepecha speak neither Spanish nor English, and many marry very young. Residents interviewed in April 2008 reported earning less than the state's minimum wage of $8 an hour. Some anthropologists urged that Duroville be kept open so that the Purepecha can preserve their culture in the US.

If Duroville represents one end of the housing spectrum, Napa may represent another. Economist Robert H. Frank defines "The Aspen Effect" as the issues surrounding housing the workers needed to provide services to the wealthy who flock to particular areas. Service workers cannot afford to live in the place where they work, straining roads that lead into Eden in the morning and out in the evening.

Los Angeles. The Migration Policy Institute http://www.migrationpolicy.org) recommended that Los Angeles county be considered a model for integrating immigrants in April 2008. Foreign-born workers are almost half of the five million in the county. However, over half of these immigrant workers are not fluent in English, and a third do not have high-school diplomas.

MPI and other reports stress the looming retirement of baby boomers and the need to train and retrain immigrants so that they can fill the jobs that will be vacated by retiring boomers. They advocate raising taxes to provide more money for schools and job-training programs.

Across the US, an estimated 43 percent of manicurists are Vietnamese; in California, the Vietnamese share of nail technicians is 80 percent. US actress Tippi Hedren reportedly helped Vietnamese refugees in the late 1970s to become manicurists, and prices dropped as Vietnamese began to compete on price. Many children of Vietnamese educated in the US shun the nail business, citing long hours and hard work.

Other immigrant groups have also specialized in particular niche, as with Cambodians and doughnut shops, Koreans and dry cleaners, Indians and motels.

Jeff St. John, "Valley jobless rates stay high," Fresno Bee, May 17, 2008. David Kelly, "Indian enclave at risk if Duroville closes," Los Angeles Times, April 28, 2008.