Catching up with the UCLA Anderson Forecast Saturday, March 12, 2022
The UCLA Anderson Forecast met in a hybrid format last Wednesday and gave a generally positive outlook with uncertainty over the Ukraine war situation and its impact. The California outlook is reported below from a Forecast news release:
A number of sectors in the California economy are showing new growth, with the technology sector leading the way. But the state’s economy nevertheless has some weaknesses, according to UCLA Anderson Forecast director Jerry Nickelsburg, author of the California forecast. Sectors that require a high level of human contact in the sale of their services demonstrate the greatest disparity between the number of jobs before the pandemic and their current employment levels, he writes.
The leisure and hospitality sector, in particular, is suffering for two reasons. First, with many countries continuing with strict COVID-19–related restrictions, including long quarantine periods for returning travelers, California tourism, which is disproportionately dependent on international visitors, continues to lag its pre-pandemic level. Second, the pandemic created a work-from-home environment for many industries. Companies may, in fact, be growing their workforces, but if those workers are not in the office, then restaurants and other businesses dependent on employees’ gathering together in central locations will recover more slowly.
UCLA Faculty Association Blog: First Quarter 2022
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