Economy

The Christmas shopping season ended with a whimper, not a bang, as frigid temperatures on the east coast and in the midwest brought retail activity in those parts of the country to a screeching halt. Sales dropped 5.4 percent for the week that ended Saturday compared with the previous week, …

National retailers had reason to celebrate as the Christmas shopping season drew to a solid close, with the prospect of even more sales into early January. Sales were up one percent for the week ending Dec. 28 compared with the previous week, and up three percent compared with the same …

The number of U.S. residents applying for unemployment benefits dropped by 2,000 last week to 339,000 applicants. That seasonally-adjusted figure is considered a sign that layoffs are staying low and hiring will remain steady for awhile, according to an Associated Press report. The national job market has picked up in …

National consumer confidence rebounded strongly in December, according to a report released Tuesday. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index was 78.1 for the last month of the year, up from 72.1 in November. That moved the index closer to where it was before the government shutdown in October: the confidence …

California added 90,100 non-agricultural jobs during November, according to a report released last week by the state Employment Development Department. The state has now added more than 1.5 million jobs since the recovery officially began in February 2010, according to the data, which was based on the results of two …

Look for vacancy rate to drop next year, but any “spec” development is a long way off With the economy on the mend, some good things are expected to happen in the Inland Empire office market during 2014. Vacancy should continue to drop, as more of the Class A and …