As the recent rain has brought much-needed relief to local crops, it is also helping to paint a rosier economic picture for the Valley, according to the biannual Business Forecast Report produced by Gökçe Soydemir, the Foster Farms Endowed Professor of Business Economics at California State University, Stanislaus. "During the drought years, the range of growth was smaller and smaller, however, employment still grew every year," said Soydemir. Although the Valley and the state both had employment growth in 2015, California’s growth in employment continued to outpace the Valley.