Strength in the housing sector and the stabilizing influence
of state government employment continue to shield the Capital
Region from the job losses being felt in much of the nation,
according to the quarterly CSUS Forecast released today by
the California Institute for County Government at California
State University, Sacramento.
The seasonally adjusted job growth in the region stayed positive
in March at .66 percent, compared with -0.49 percent statewide
and -0.93 percent nationwide. The Bay Area employment figures,
meanwhile, contracted -3.99 percent in March.
The forecast says the Capital Region will have continued slow
job growth for the next 12 months, with no period of negative
growth. It predicts job growth in the region of about 2 percent
by March 2003.
The quarterly CSUS Forecast of the region's job outlook uses
an econometric model of the six-county Capital Region with
more than two dozen variables.
The forecast was developed by the California Institute for
County Government with support from the CSUS Regional Development
Initiative. CSUS economics professor Suzanne O'Keefe and Robert
Fountain, special assistant for regional development at CSUS,
served as project advisors. Shawn Blosser of Databasix provided
assistance with model development and programming.
More information is available by contacting Matthew Newman,
director of the California Institute for County Government,
at (916) 324-0796, by sending an e-mail to info@cicg.org
or by visiting the institute's website at www.cicg.org.
Additional media assistance is available by contacting CSUS
public affairs at (916) 278-6156.
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For further information, send an e-mail
to infodesk@csus.edu
or contact
public affairs at (916) 278-6156. For ticketed events, call
the CSUS Ticket Office at (916) 278-4323.
