BUSINESS
December 31, 2009 | By Julie Wernau
2010 will not be the year the hiring floodgates open. Although certain sectors of the economy are showing signs of a thaw, employers say they plan to tread carefully in the coming year, and those that are hiring say they will wait until the second half to fill jobs. But there is hope for employees who saw hours and benefits slashed, or who took on extra responsibilities as companies tried to hold on to the talent that kept them afloat in tough times. Tom Wilson, managing director at investment management firm Brinker Capital, said unemployment was expected to decline by 1 percentage point each year as the economy recovers, meaning that by the end of 2010, unemployment would hover at about 9%. Over the last 18 months, people have "hunkered down" at their jobs, said Brian Kropp, managing director of the Corporate Leadership Council, which surveys about 300,000 employees each quarter.
BUSINESS
December 26, 2009 | By Tom Petruno
In case you missed it, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner this week promised America that there won't be another financial crisis in 2010. "We're not going to have a second wave of financial crisis," Geithner said in an interview with National Public Radio. "We'll do what is necessary to prevent that. We cannot afford to let the country live again with a risk that we're going to have another series of events like we had last year." Well, there it is. And you wonder why the stock market is at 14-month highs?
BUSINESS
December 16, 2009 | By Hugo Martín
The airline industry will rebound modestly next year, losing only about half of what it is expects to lose in 2009, a trade group predicted Tuesday. "The worst is likely behind us," said Giovanni Bisignani, director general of the International Air Transport Assn., the trade group that issued the financial outlook. The association represents about 230 airlines worldwide. The group's forecast for $5.6 billion in net losses next year attributes the improving picture partly to growing passenger and cargo demand.
BUSINESS
December 11, 2009 | By Chris Kraul
From appliance stores in Brazil to auto assembly lines in Mexico, signs are evident that Latin America has seen the worst of the global economic crisis and is poised for solid expansion. The region is expected to post economic growth of 4.1% next year, according to a forecast released Thursday by the United Nations' Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. That's a stronger rebound than previously anticipated. Emerging powerhouse Brazil is expected to lead the way with projected gross domestic product growth of 5.5% in 2010.
BUSINESS
December 9, 2009 | By Alana Semuels
California's jobless rate is close to peaking, but the recovery will be sluggish, with employers not expected to resume hiring until at least next spring, according to new forecasts by UCLA and other analysts. The state's unemployment rate, which hit 12.5% in October, will probably peak at 12.7% this month. Still, it won't fall below 10% until 2012, according to a UCLA Anderson forecast released today. That means California's economy almost certainly will continue to struggle for the foreseeable future.
BUSINESS
October 6, 2009 | By Andrea Chang
It still won't look a lot like Christmas for retailers this year. Retail sales during the crucial November-December period are projected to fall 1%, to $437.6 billion, from the same period in 2008, the National Retail Federation said in its holiday forecast to be released today. That's bad, but not quite so dismal as the 3.4% drop last year, the trade group said. "The expectation of another challenging holiday season does not come as news to retailers," said Tracy Mullin, the group's president.
BUSINESS
April 10, 2009 | By E. Scott Reckard
After months of nearly unmitigated gloom, glimmers of improvement are emerging in the U.S. economy. On Thursday, retail sales figures showed that the decline in consumer spending that began with a miserable Christmas shopping season might be stabilizing. Wells Fargo & Co. surprised analysts by saying it expected to report a record first-quarter profit despite setting aside $4.6 billion for potential loan losses.
BUSINESS
March 25, 2009 | By Julie Johnsson
Airlines face a global downdraft far worse than the turbulence after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that sent four major U.S. carriers into bankruptcy, an airline trade group warned Tuesday. The International Air Transport Assn. predicts that airlines worldwide will lose $4.7 billion in 2009 as plunging traffic offsets a deep drop in fuel prices, one of the carriers' largest expenses. Industry revenue is expected to fall 12% to $467 billion, the association said.
BUSINESS
February 18, 2009 | By Roger Vincent
The declining Southern California economy may bottom out as soon as this summer, but more financial grief is coming as local industries struggle to cope with the recession, a prominent business trade group said in a forecast to be released today. Economic news this year will be "mostly bad," according to the 2009-10 forecast by the Kyser Center for Economic Research at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. The state's economic downturn is expected to hit bottom before the end of 2009, but when growth resumes it will be moderate at best, the Kyser Center said.
BUSINESS
January 29, 2009
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao brought cautious optimism to the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, predicting that his country will achieve its target of 8% economic growth this year despite the global financial meltdown. Wen called for enhanced U.S.-China cooperation to address the issue, even as he and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin obliquely criticized the United States, blaming a relentless pursuit of profit for the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.