Quote from noob_trad3r:
They have a horrible high taxes, huge nanny state yet why is so much industry like IT etc.. attracted to California?
http://thebusinessrelocationcoach.blogspot.com/2011/06/calif-business-departures-increasing.html
http://thebusinessrelocationcoach.blogspot.com/
Businesses have been leaving California. In our area, I know of three companies that have moved away. One went to Utah and the other two moved to Colorado. California unemployment is the second-worst in the country (U3 unemployment is over 11% and U6 unemployment is near 20%). I've lived in the same California city for the last 20 years and unemployment rate in this area used to hover around 3%. Now it's around 9%, which is better than most of the state, but still terrible compared to recent history.
Nobody sees a fast recovery for California and many are concerned about a double-dip recession because the real estate/construction industry was so badly damaged and the real estate market is still very soft. Also, California is deep in debt and there are hundreds of billions in unfunded retirement liabilities for the public employee unions. There's a lot of uncertainty here, to say the least. Businesses don't like uncertainty.