Employment & Recession (Orange: Home Depot, construction, live)

[dreamfollower]

In view of a looming recession, who will fair better in terms of employment ~ CA or AZ?

And is it possible that the excessive new-build that NV experienced will come to haunt CA/AZ, too, to the detriment of their housing markets?

How did CA fair in the last recession?

[Humanoid]

The last recession hit the tech industry hard so asking how CA did in it isn't going to be deceptive.

I would think CA would do much better than AZ, CA has a lot of industry that has little to do with housing or finance.

[UB50]

California is very diverse, industry-wise. We aren't really dependent on any one industry for jobs. Yeah, losses in construction, housing, finance will pinch a bit -- but there are still a lot of other industries in the state.

Statewide, farming is huge, technology is huge (still), entertainment is huge, tourism is huge, import/export is huge, biotech is huge. For all the aerospace cutbacks, aerospace is still pretty big.

[Sassberto]

Aside from real-estate related businesses (which is a lot of business, if you think about it), I think CA's economy is more robust, certainly than it was in 1994 and 1999. Tech is booming right now, and the nascent alternative energy sector is starting to take off.

[sheri257]

All I know is that there's a TON of commercial construction in my area.

Housing, of course, is tanking but hospitals, retail, commercial office buildings etc. are expanding.

I don't think California is recession proof by any means but I am very surprized at the amount of business expansion I'm seeing.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by sheri257

All I know is that there's a TON of commercial construction in my area.

Does it seem like the housing preceded the commercial/retail and now commercial/retail is now catching up? That is what I am seeing in some of the communities around me. Up until about three years ago many neighbors would have to drive to Colorado Springs (20 min) or Castle Rock (25 min) for a decent restaurant, sporting goods, electronics, Home Depot, Kohls, etc. Now those things are here and more are being built.

In the suburbs they are dropping in Carl's Jr's and Subway's by helicopter. There are several big commercial office projects going in too. Where I live, in an older area, we have 3 new commercial buildings in the past year or so.

[UB50]

I read something in the last couple of months... I seem to remember that it said office space vacancies had dropped below 10% in LA and that that was a very low vacancy rate. Orange County had something like a 13% vacancy rate.