02-05-2025
Kern County economic summit premieres new innovations and tariff discussions
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — The Kern County Economic Summit was held at Cal State Bakersfield where industry leaders and economists joined to discuss the changing business landscape.
New innovations were shown, job growth and reduction analyzed, and new industries shared their faces in 2025 summit marked the first year back in-person since the pandemic, and featured multiple panelists as well as speakers that spoke about healthcare, education, tariffs, and more.
'It's an opportunity for the community to come together and learn about the economy, learn about healthcare, education, and even innovation into the future,' said Janelle Capra, CEO and President of the Greater Bakersfield Chamber.
Two CSUB economists spoke at the Summit: Dr. Richard Gearhart and Dr. Nyakundi Michieka.
Gearhart talked about our job population and that most of the industries are growing besides oil and gas.
'We've seen growth in every economic sector except for mining, and we've seen considerable employment growth compared to 2010. We have 160,000 more people with jobs here in Kern County and 10,000 fewer people without jobs,' said Gearhart.
Gearhart also spoke on tariffs and how they are a threat to Kern's economy.
'Tariffs in general are a bad idea, they're a consumer tax, it's equivalent to a sales tax, and we just had an 18% tax imposed on every consumer here in the United States,' said Gearhart.
Gearhart says tariffs affect two major industries in Kern: agriculture and warehousing.
Tariffs in 2018 caused the agriculture sector to need a $30 billion federal bail out just to keep revenues up.
'Consumers are worried about shelves that are gonna go empty, consumers are worried about inflation. The federal reserve has suggested that we could see inflation of nearly 10% from tariffs. Along with reduced economic growth,' said Gearhart.
Dr. Nyakundi Michieka, another CSUB economist, said that despite a public perception, California's population isn't going down.
'The population from 2019 to 2024 stayed relatively the same, but there was little bit of a dip in growth,' said Dr. Michieka.
He also said that wasn't the case for Kern County.
'Kern County is one of the counties that saw an increase in population,' said Dr. Michieka.
There were also panels on education, healthcare, along with speakers for new businesses like Stratolaunch– a rocket company, Pacific Steel Group, and the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tejon.
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