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The Central Valley communities were hit harder by the recession, but they’re seeing job growth in energy, agriculture, manufacturing and even construction, Kotkin said.

In contrast, Sonoma County has lost 43 percent of jobs in construction, 24 percent in finance, 20 percent in information and 10 percent in manufacturing over the past five years, he said.

“You lost jobs in most categories,” Kotkin said.

'California is God's best moment," says Joel Kotkin. "It's the best place in the world to live." Or at least it used to be.

Mr. Kotkin, one of the nation's premier demographers, left his native New York City in 1971 to enroll at the University of California, Berkeley. The state was a far-out paradise for hipsters who had grown up listening to the Mamas & the Papas' iconic "California Dreamin'" and the Beach Boys' "California Girls." But it also attracted young, ambitious people "who had a lot of dreams, wanted to build big companies." Think Intel, Apple and Hewlett-Packard.