By Jim Cline
The Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council just released their November report on the State and national economy and like their report last month, it provided mixed news about the state of the economy. [Read more…]
November 19, 2013 by
Quarter 2 Retail Sales Report Shows Continued Rebound
November 19, 2013 by
Latest State Economic Forecast Report Continues to Present Mixed Signals
By Jim Cline
The Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council just released their November report on the State and national economy and like their report last month, it provided mixed news about the state of the economy. [Read more…]
October 17, 2013 by
Latest State Economic and Revenue Report Provides “Mixed Signals”
By Jim Cline
The latest report of the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council, provides a mixed picture of economic strength both nationally and locally.
October 15, 2013 by
Latest CPI Report and Other Indicators Suggest Low Inflation May be the “New Normal”
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
As we had suggested in our last article on inflation trends, inflation seems to be trending downward. The CPI numbers confirm that trend. The latest inflation report both for Seattle and All-Cities is sub-2% and other recent inflation projections suggest that trend might continue. The recently released August CPI numbers report the National inflation index (All-Cities-W) at 1.5% and the Seattle-W even lower — 1.1%. A year ago, the corresponding were 1.7% (All-Cities) and 2.7% (Seattle): This graph shows the declining rate over the past year: [Read more…]
July 31, 2013 by
Surge in Sales Tax Revenue Presages Improved Negotiation Outlook
By Jim Cline
Recent economic news has been characterized as tepid at best, but the most recent Washington State Department of Revenue report offers one of our clearest recent indicators that a solid economic recovery may be underway, at least in Washington State. The recently released Department of Revenue First Quarter Sales tax numbers show a statewide jump from the preceding 12 months (Quarter 1, 2012) of 8 percent. The City sales tax numbers can be found here. The County numbers can be found here. [Read more…]
July 31, 2013 by
June CPI Report Shows Continued Low Inflation
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
The just-released June CPI numbers show that inflation continues to be low. The Seattle CPI-W index came in at 1.2% up 1/10 of a percentage from April but down from 2.7% from last June. The All-Cities index came in at 1.8%, up from 0.9 in April and slightly up from last June’s 1.6%. This graph shows the movement over the past year.
April 19, 2013 by
Wage Series Part 10: A Review of Recession Era Interest Arbitration Awards — 2008-2013
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
As part of our spring 2013 wage series, it seemed important to interject a discussion about how arbitrators have ruled in the recent economic climate. I recently spoke on many of the same points at the Annual PERC sponsored Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) Conference, so this seems like an appropriate time for this review.
April 16, 2013 by
Jump in Seattle Area Home Prices Indicate Signs of Rebounding Local Economy
By Jim Cline
The just-released home sales data indicates some continued improvement in the local housing market. This is also a good sign of a broader recovery not only of the Seattle area economy, but possibly a statewide recovery. As we recently reported, the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council continues to indicate that the Washington State economy is recovering at a somewhat stronger rate than the national economy.
April 16, 2013 by
Wage Series Part 9: Does Geographic Location Matter?
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
In the previous two articles in this wage series, we discussed the extent to which population and assessed valuation correlated with wage rankings. In this article, we discuss geographic location and the effect of various labor markets on public safety wages.
April 12, 2013 by
Wage Series Part 8: Does Assessed Valuation Matter?
By Jim Cline and Kate Kremer
In the last issue we discussed whether – and to what extent — population influenced a jurisdiction’s relative wage ranking. In this article we discuss to what extent assessed valuation influences that ranking. [Read more…]
