Economy

Manufacturing in the Inland Empire recorded another solid month in April. The two-county region’s purchasing managers index last month was 60, the seventh consecutive month it’s been above 50 and the highest it’s been in three years, said Barbara Sirotnik, director of the Institute of Applied Research and Policy Analysis …

Inland motorists are taking a hit at the service station. The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline recently went up 26 cents, to $3.41, according to a report in The Press-Enterprise. That price was recorded Friday. That’s one of the largest increases ever recorded in the region, adding …

U.S. retail might be moving backwards. Some online retailers say they will consider opening brick-and-mortar stores during 2015, according a report by the International Council of Shopping Centers. The study, which cited data taken from an eBay survey of 1,000 Internet businesses, found that 75 percent of those businesses expect …

The Inland Empire industrial market showed no signs of slowing down during the first quarter of this year. An estimated 5.2 million square feet of industrial space was absorbed during the first three months of this year, the two-county region’s 22nd consecutive quarter of positive net absorption, according to the …

California’s unemployment picture, and the Inland Empire’s, continued to improve last month. The state’s unemployment rate dropped to 6.5 percent in March, down from 7.9 percent exactly one year earlier, according to the state Employment Development Department. Employers in the public and private sector added 39,800 non-agricultural jobs during the …

The number of U.S. residents applying for unemployment assistance rose for the second consecutive week. Applications increased 12,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 294,000, according to multiple reports. Other data suggests that the number of unemployed workers applying for benefits is still low: the four-week average of applicants rose …