Retail sales were strong nationwide last week, boosted by seasonal demand and warm weather throughout much of the country. Sales rose 1.6 percent during the week that ended Saturday compared with the previous week, and were up 3.1 percent year-over-year, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman …
Read More »Is the Inland Empire close to a full economic recovery?
That’s the verdict of local economist John Husing, and a Los Angeles economics firm is almost as optimistic. Both agreed the region is getting close to where it was before the recession. Let’s hope the local economists are right about the immediate future of the Inland Empire economy. …
Read More »State unemployment drops in past year
California’s unemployment rate was 8.1 percent last month, unchanged from February and down 9.2 percent in March 2013, a state agency said last week. Non-agricultural jobs in the state totaled more than 15.3 million last month, a year-to-year addition of 325,100 jobs and an increase of 2.2 percent during that …
Read More »U.S. sales down slightly
National retail sales took a slight dip last week. With demand varying in different retail categories, sales dropped 1.5 percent nationwide for the week ending March 22 compared with the previous week, according to data released Tuesday by the International Council of Shopping Centers in New York. The good news …
Read More »Inland job growth should be strong in second quarter
Hiring in the Inland Empire should improve as the year progresses, a major personnel agency said this week. Employers who want to hire new workers are expected to outnumber those who are considering letting people go by 3 to 1 during the second quarter, according to the Manpower Employment Outlook …
Read More »Inland job growth better than first thought
Some good news on the employment front: an estimate 37,400 jobs were created last year in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. That’s almost three times as much as state officials first estimated, according to a report first published in The Press-Enterprise. The 3.1 percent job growth for 2013 came after …
Read More »