Inaugural CMC-UCLA Anderson InlandEmpire Economic Forecast Conference Held

More than 300 local business, government and civic leaders gathered in Ontario on Wednesday for the inaugural CMC-UCLA Anderson Inland Empire Forecast Conference. The partnership, over a year in the making between CMC's new Inland Empire Center (IEC) and UCLA Anderson School of Management, proved particularly relevant in light of their sobering, gray forecast for the region.
The Inland Empire, which at its peak in 2007 employed an incredible 1,280,000 workers, was dubbed by the IEC an "epicenter" of California's financial "earthquake" when the recession hit that year. Since then, the area has shed roughly 15 percent of jobs a significantly larger percentage than statewide or nationwide figures.
Construction has taken the greatest hit, stated associate professor Mark Weidenmier, director of the Lowe Institute of Political Economy and one of the conference's organizers. "The IE had a 90-95% drop in housing starts from a peak," he said, "so it's going to be a long, slow recovery. But it appears we're off the bottom."
The forecast predicted that national unemployment would float around 10 percent through 2012, and that Inland Empire unemployment would remain high well into double digits through 2014.
The region's current unemployment rate stands at 15.1 percent.
Christopher Myers, CEO of Citizens Business Bank, stressed the timeliness of the event and the importance of the CMC-UCLA research.
"When you look at forecast, you learn from the past," Myers stated. "And I think one of the things we see is that California's population continues to grow. You can't really find a 20-year cycle where real estate prices haven't increased in the history of California."
On the conference itself, hosted by Citizens Business Bank in its namesake arena, Myers expressed excitement that the event would become an annual one.
"We're just excited about Claremont McKenna's involvement with UCLA Anderson, combining what we think are the strongest entities in the area to put all of our resources together to produce a good forecast," Myers stated.
The conference also included discussions from real estate pioneers and local public figures, both of which discussed current topics affecting regional markets.
In his opening address, CMC Dean of Faculty Gregory Hess stated, "It makes great sense for Claremont McKenna College, where we have a teacher-scholar approach and a focus on providing a liberal arts education that emphasizes economics and political science, to be one of the presenters of this conference."
UCLA Anderson has been publishing its Economic Outlook Forecast for sixty years, reporting on Los Angeles and Orange County markets as well as national and statewide economic trends. CMC's Inland Empire Center brought a local expertise to the partnership, said UCLA Anderson senior economist Jerry Nickelsburg.
"We're learning quite a bit from each other," Nickelsburg said. "The Inland Empire Center brings deep local knowledge, which allows us to drill down into the local economy from our analysis of the national economy. So we both bring unique characteristics to this."
The Inland Empire Center for Economics and Public Policy at CMC is a joint venture between the Rose Institute of State and Local Government and the Lowe Institute of Political Economy. --Michael Wilner '11 Related Links:
Link to Executive Summary of the Inland Empire Economic Forecast Link to Inland Empire Outlook, a newsletter published by the Inland Empire Center analyzing economic and political trends shaping California's fastest growing region.