Economic growth in the Santa Clarita Valley will slow in 2008, the trickle-down from the slumping housing industry coupled with the unprecedented mortgage lending crisis reports the Daily News.
“We’re on recession watch for 2008, for the nation, California and Southern California,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist with the nonprofit Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. “It’s not a full-blown recession, but not a fun year for a lot of people.”
“We have to see how things play out.”
There will be some job growth and expansion in retail, but the dismal housing market is dragging down job creation, according to Mark Schniepp, director of the Santa Barbara-based California Economic Forecast, in an in-depth study of northern Los Angeles County.
“The next two years represent a soft patch in the economy,” Schniepp wrote in his latest survey, which he presented last month to local business leaders.
“However, they do not translate into a general recession of idled workers, equipment and factories.”
Schniepp predicted 1,400 new jobs in the Santa Clarita Valley, a mix of hourly and salaried employment. That marks the area’s slowest rate of growth in a decade. He also estimated some 150 to 200 new self-employed workers.
Read it here: Housing Market may drag down other Sectors in Santa Clarita Valley