IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
The Inland Empire will gain more than 40,000 jobs this year, moving it closer to recovering the 143,100 jobs it lost during the recession, the region’s chief economist said today.
If that prediction holds true, Inland Southern California will have replaced 85.1 percent of the jobs it lost between 2008 and 2010, John Husing said during his annual State of the Region presentation.
“I’m very optimistic, and I don’t see anything derailing the recovery that we’re on now,” Husing said shortly after he addressed an audience of about 350 at the Doubletree Hotel in Ontario during the IEEP’s 2014 State of the Region event. “We’re looking at two or three good years, with a full recovery in 2015. I don’t see anything changing that.”
Husing also predicted 8.5 percent unemployment in Riverside and San Bernardino counties by the end of this year – down from 9.4 percent in March of last year – with many of those jobs coming in construction and healthcare.
“I’m not going to be gloomy today,” said Husing, who quipped at the beginning of his remarks that he’s been so pessimistic during the past few years that he and his wife are no longer invited anywhere. “We aren’t all the way back, but we’re finally getting back to something that resembles a normal economy.”
The Inland housing market is also coming back, mostly because it’s the only place where people can afford to buy a house, said Steve Ruffner, president of KB Home’s Southern California division.
“Our business is pretty simple,” Ruffner said. “People keep driving east until they find a house they can afford. It’s a tale two markets, the coastal communities, where a home is a lot more expensive, and the Inland Empire.”
The Inland region appears to be moving away from the boom and bust cycles of the past two decades and toward a more stable market, according to Ruffner.
“We’re looking at five to six percent growth a year, which we can all live with,” Ruffner said. “We’re moving back to what I would call a more normal market, which we haven’t had in 20 years.”
