At least one survey indicates that California's economy may be on the mend. According to Comerica Bank, its California Economic Activity Index rose for the fifth consecutive month in August after reaching a cyclical low in March. "The key missing ingredient to a sustained and healthy rebound continues to be job growth. It is the only component of our index that has not contributed positively since it bottomed five months ago," said Dana Johnson, chief economist at Comerica.
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However, there are signs that the job market could be looking better. A report from San Diego-based OI Partners-The McGuire Group finds that 40 percent of employers are planning to rehire some former workers they laid off as either full-time employees or as consultants and freelancers. Rehiring is a smart move in the current market because the skills of the worker are already known by the employer and it helps to keep hiring costs down.
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Despite all of the economic problems we are suffering here in the Golden State, just about everybody that lives elsewhere would move here if they had the choice. The new Harris Poll finds that for the sixth year in a row, California tops the list of states that Americans would choose to live in if they did not live in the states where they are now. Florida and Hawaii followed California in the survey. So, what city would people like to live in? The Harris Poll found that New York, the perennial pick, topped the list again, followed by Denver, San Francisco and San Diego.
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Americans will ring cash registers to the tune of $437.6 trillion this holiday season. That's the forecast from the National Retail Federation, which anticipates spending will be down just 1 percent from last year. That is considered an improvement because sales had fallen 3.4 percent between 2007 and 2008. Another survey from Web Publishers finds that 85.3 percent of adults expect to do some or all of their holiday shopping online this year.
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It's hard to imagine that a magazine with 980,000 subscribers would go out of business but that is the truth for Gourmet magazine. Publisher Conde Nast said that advertising revenues for the magazine were not sufficient and that Gourmet, which was first published in 1941, will cease printing immediately. Also being dropped are Modern Bride, Elegant Bride, and Cookie, a parenting magazine. Conde Nast will continue to publish 19 other titles including Vogue, the New Yorker and Wired.
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