News

Even as the economy shows signs of improvement and poverty levels off, new U.S. census data suggests the gains are halting and uneven. Depending on education, race, income and even marriage, not all segments of the population are seeing an economic turnaround. In 45 states and the District of Columbia, poverty rates remained steady at high levels. Mississippi, the poorest state in the nation, was one of just three states posting increases, from 22.6 percent to 24.2 percent. California and New Hampshire were the others.

Poverty continued creeping upward in the Los Angeles area last year, long after the declared end of the recession, new estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show. The numbers are another sign of continued suffering after the economic downturn: More than 17% of people in the Los Angeles, Long Beach and Santa Ana metropolitan area lived below the poverty line last year. That number rose year by year since 2007, when roughly 13% lived in poverty. . . . “What is significant and new is that poverty is not rising and falling with the rest of the economy, it is just continuing to rise,” wrote Bill Parent, associate dean of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. “This is a terrible ‘new normal.’ The rising tide isn’t lifting all the boats.”

The Sacramento metro area had the highest business bankruptcy rate in the United States, global information service company Experian announced Wednesday. . . . Other California cities noted in the analysis: Bakersfield had thesecond highest business bankruptcy at 2.16 percent; San Francisco had the fastest businesses to pay bills after contracted terms at 3.2 days; and San Diego had the fourth lowest delinquency rate at 3.13 percent.

Back-to-school shopping failed to boost the pace of consumer spending last month and retal sales growth unexpectedly slowed, the Commerce Department said Friday.

Southern California home prices stayed flat in August for the second straight month, an indication the market may be normalizing after a period of torrid price hikes.

The California Trade Report, released by research firm Beacon Economics, found that Golden State exports ticked up 6.8 percent over the same time last year. Shipments of manufactured goods, especially civilian aircraft and plane components, helped account for much of the increase. Non-manufactured goods such agricultural products were also up and shipments to China increased by 19.9 percent

The state’s merchandise export trade totaled $13.98 billion, up a nominal 6.8% over the $13.09 billion in exports recorded in July 2012. By comparison, overall U.S. merchandise exports rose by a nominal 5.1% during the same period.

California saw a 2.4 percent month-to-month decline in job vacancies advertised online in August while Sacramento listings held fairly steady, according to the latest statistics released by the Conference Board.

The firm found that most chief information officers in the Bay Area plan to hire IT staff in the fourth quarter. About 13 percent of CIOs expect to increase the size of their IT staff, up 1 percent from the third quarter. And 66 percent of the officers surveyed plan to hire to fill vacant IT jobs — that figure is up 5 percent from the third quarter.

U.S. consumer sentiment retreated in August from last month’s six-year high, though Americans were slightly more upbeat in their outlook than earlier in the month, a survey released on Friday showed.

California sold $764 million in debt Tuesday at lower-than-expected interest rates, a vote of investor confidence in the state’s improved finances.

Annual and monthly permit data for the state, counties, and metropolitan areas

Bi-monthly compendium of economic indicators, with historical data to 1998