California's Road to Recovery
California’s economic future is getting brighter.
A recent Chapman University study that analyzes the state’s economic indicators shows they are at their highest levels since September 2000.
This means it is likely that more jobs will be created in California during the rest of the year.
“The reason the economic indicators in California are up is because the national economy is improving, the export market is going through a boom, and the economy of our trading partners is improving,” said Esmael Adibi, director of the A. Gary Anderson Center for Economic Research at Chapman University in Orange, Calif. “Also, construction activity in California is improving. That should lead to higher employment throughout 2004.”
The study, released May 10, noted that California’s leading economic indicator series increased to 2.40 in the second quarter of 2004 from 1.99 in the first quarter.
The study’s economic indicator series includes movements in the lagged values of real gross domestic product, real exports, the Standard & Poor’s 500, and the state’s total construction spending. All four components of the series have improved.
Year-over-year GDP increased 4.3 percent over the previous quarter; year-over-year real exports in the United States increased 7.8 percent, compared with 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 2004; and California’s construction spending increased 6.3 percent.
—Deborah Belgum
