Economy

Two of country’s major retail trade association are predicting more than a three percent year-over-year increase, in sales, and at least one local mall expects this to be a good year. A better economy and lower unemployment are some reasons for the optimism. Even though it’s not yet Halloween, much …

Unemployment in the Inland Empire fell to 6.1 percent in September, as the two-county region added 3,500 non-agricultural jobs month-over-month. That was down from 7.8 percent exactly one year earlier, and was reportedly the lowest jobless rate the two-county region has recorded since September 2007, according data released Friday by …

There could be ominous news for the Inland Empire in the latest report on U.S. employment. The economy create only 142,000 jobs in September as the unemployment rate remained at 5.1 percent, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor. Virtually everyone agreed the report was weak …

Anyone who attended the Sixth Annual Inland Southern California Economic Forecast Thursday must have left feeling optimistic about the state of the two-county region. Economist Chris Thornberg, a founding partner with Beacon Economics in Los Angeles, painted a rosy picture of both the U.S. and California economies before the crowd …

The Halloween shopping season is starting to heat up, and so far Disney products are in the lead, at least at one Inland Empire store. “We’re starting to sell more Halloween stuff, and so far Disney is the most popular, although it’s still early,” said Jason Murphy, manager of Party …

 Both locally and nationally, the retail industry will apparently hire the same number of people this year that it hired last year. Still, the projected hiring numbers released so far aren’t bad, and the market is a lot better now than it was a few years ago. If the first …