California Business Minute™

Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute.

The Long Beach and national economies will soon be getting “better, but not good,"
with housing-sector problems expected to bottom out later this summer, before a
recovery in 2010, according to this year’s Economic Forecast by California State
Long Beach’s Office of Economic Research.

High unemployment and a poor performing housing market will continue to impact
Long Beach's economy through mid-2010, although several signs point to a recovery
beginning later this year.  Professors Joseph Magaddino and Lisa Grobar who made
the presentation both illustrated optimism in an otherwise tough economy.

The recent approval of a $750 million redevelopment project at the Port of Long
Beach was one such beacon.

In addition, the forecast illustrated continued growth in education, health care,
leisure and hospitality. Specifically in the healthcare industry, job growth will
remain strong this year and into 2010 as area hospitals, insurance companies; health
clinics and critical-care facilities ramp up hiring. In Long Beach, healthcare
providers employ about 26,000 people and the Long Beach forecast predicts job growth
in the field between 2 and 3 percent annually for years to come.

Tourism also has remained steady in Long Beach through strong convention business.
Overnight stays at the city's hotels generated about $300 million to the local
economy in 2008, and that figure is expected to hold or grow slightly through 2010.

And despite a more than 30 percent drop in home prices since a 2007 peak, housing has
reached affordability levels not seen in nearly a decade. In the housing industry,
economists expect prices to begin climbing by mid-2010. "The fundamentals are coming
back into place," Grobar said. "Housing affordability has increased, and lending will
pick up later this year. You have a lot of people on the sidelines waiting to buy a
home, so there's some pent-up demand there."

The pessimistic side of the forecast expects to see weak levels of consumer spending
and higher unemployment rates. The pessimistic view, Joseph Magaddino said, is that
the positive trends will not take root, and that the economy will not recover until
the end of 2010.

I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.

For further Information http://www.csulb.edu/colleges/cla/departments/economics/conference/