California manufacturing production rose for the fifth consecutive month in August, according to a survey by the California Manufacturers Association.
But the economy was still suffering from a lack of supply in August and a sharp drop in the cost of raw materials.
Manufacturing output in August was $1.24 billion, a decline of $632 million from the same month a year ago, the association said.
Output for the first three months of this year was also down, at $1 billion.
But there are some signs that manufacturing is picking up, as California has added 2,000 jobs in the past month, according a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Manufacturing employment in the United States grew by 3.7 percent in August from a year earlier, according the Labor Department.
Manufacturing’s share of total jobs in California grew from 4.2 percent a year before to 4.5 percent in July.
California’s manufacturing industry has grown faster than the rest of the country since 2000.
But a slowdown in China, a big growth market for the U.S. manufacturing sector, has left the country’s manufacturing jobs in a lurch.
The California-based manufacturers association reported a manufacturing employment gain of 1,500 in August.
California is one of the largest manufacturing exporters in the world, producing about 40 percent of the nation’s goods.
It has also been a hotbed for political violence.
In May, a gunman opened fire in an Oakland neighborhood that was mostly home to Asian immigrants.
The attacker was shot dead by police.
In October, a mass shooting left seven people dead and several others wounded in a neighborhood in the city of Oakland.
On July 7, police in California found the body of a man shot to death in a wooded area in San Jose, which has been the site of protests over police killings of black men.
In June, police fatally shot a man who was running from a robbery suspect who had been armed.
On Wednesday, San Jose police released a video of a woman, identified as 22-year-old Kianz Bowers, who said she was a victim of a robbery that she had reported to police on Wednesday.
Police said Bowers was not a suspect in the shooting.
