Economy

U.S consumer spending rose 0.9 percent in May month-over-month, the largest such increase in nearly six years. Most of that money was spent on miscellaneous items, including small purchase like groceries and big-ticket items like automobiles, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. commerce department. Cheaper gasoline prices in …

Amazon isn’t done hiring in the Inland Empire. One month after the online retail company announced it would hire 1,000 people to work at its mega-warehouses in Riverside, San Bernardino and Moreno Valley, Amazon officials have said they will add another 1,000 jobs at those facilities. The announcement was good …

California employers added 54,200 non-farm jobs in May, according to data released Friday by the state Employment Development Department. Despite that, California’s unemployment rate rose to 6.4 percent, up from 6.3 percent in April, but at least one economist said that’s no reason for concern. “This is one of those …

California is back among the world’s largest economies. The state’s gross domestic product reached $2.3 trillion in 2014, enough to make it the seventh largest economy in the world, according to multiple reports released Wednesday. California ranked just above Brazil but below the United Kingdom. During the recession, the state …

U.S. employers added 280,000 jobs in May, as the national job market regained some of the momentum it lost earlier in the year. Despite that performance, unemployment was up slightly in May, to 5.5 percent, from 5.4 percent in April, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of …

National productivity dropped 3.1 percent during the first quarter of this year. That drop was larger than 1.9 percent decline that was predicted in April, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor. Labor costs also rose faster than expected in January, February and March: up 6.7 …