Richmond International Airport (RIC), the gateway to Virginia's Capital Region, plays a vital role in the Central Virginia regional economy. RIC and its tenants contribute annual sales of more than $800 million to the local economy based on the measurable benefits of airport operations, business efficiencies, visitor spending, and their associated ripple effects. The airport also plays an important role in attracting economic development and supporting world-class business operations.
13 months ago, it was 5.25%; analyst expects another cut in December
Written by Carol Hazard of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Read the full article.
...
The Federal Open Market Committee, in its statement yesterday, said the financial turmoil is likely to curtail consumer and business spending.
"The pace of economic activity appears to have slowed markedly, owing importantly to a decline in consumer expenditures," according to the statement.
The Fed also noted that growth might not be as good as previously expected and a lot of uncertainty remains in the outlook, said Christine Chmura of Chmura Economics & Analytics in Richmond.
The expectation is the Fed will reduce the federal funds rate by another half a percentage point when it meets again Dec. 16, Chmura said.
The last time the rate fell below 1 percent was in 1958, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president.
"A reduced rate takes nine months to a year to filter through the economy," Chmura said. "Most economists expect the recession to last through the third quarter of next year."
Over the past 13 months, the Fed has cut the federal funds rate from 5.25 percent to 1 percent. "It has been very aggressive in easing [rates] and that should have some impact on the economy," Chmura said.
The Fed's action should help keep adjustable rate mortgages low, notably those tied to Treasury rates, she said.
People buying cars also should see lower interest rates, although credit is more difficult to obtain. "Those with good credit should be able to make purchases at lower rates," Chmura said.
The stock market responded by bouncing up and down yesterday, although not as wildly as in previous days, before two of the major indexes wound up slightly lower.
Reply to Messages Directly from Outlook, your Blackberry, iPhone, or any Email Client Program
This additional feature will radically simplify the way many users will interact with OnStage. No longer does a user need to go to the OnStage website to reply to a message stream. Once you receive a message, simply click Reply as you would if replying to any ordinary email. Your reply will be posted onto the OnStage stream and all users subscribed to that stream will receive a copy of your message.
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The job losses across Virginia also affect other businesses, which in turn could lead to more layoffs.
For every job lost at the Qimonda plant, for instance, about 1.4 other jobs could be affected among various vendors, contractors and suppliers of the company, according to an analysis by Chmura Economics and Analytics, a Richmond-based research firm.
An additional job could be lost in consumer service industries such as restaurants and retailers, the research firm said.
Qimonda said it plans to lay off 1,200 workers, or about 40 percent of the plant's employees, by January as it shuts down a production line for 200 mm memory chip wafers. It has said it will keep open its production of 300 mm wafers.
The multiplier effect of job losses on the economy is higher for high-tech manufacturers -- especially for semiconductor plants like Qimonda -- because they tend to have a network of suppliers and pay high wages, Chmura Economics said. Qimonda declined to provide salary information, but the average annual pay for the semiconductor industry is more than $60,000, the economics firm said.
"Clearly, whenever you have layoffs, you see a pullback on spending on other discretionary items such as eating out or going to movies, so I would expect that to have an impact on the retail sector and services," said Christine Chmura, an economist and the firm's president.
For instance, Woolfolk, who operated production machinery that made liquid-holding cartons at Evergreen, said he and his wife never led an extravagant lifestyle. What they do for fun has virtually stopped.
Projects Management Internet services catered to project management — when more than one employee is involved in carrying out a specific task — allow for online collaboration between colleagues. The services help those involved in the project organize their work and track how the project is advancing. Most of the project management tools allow the project’s head to define and distribute tasks, as well as set time frames for their completion. Expense tracking devices are also available, allowing project members to monitor the project’s budget and expenditures.
Job growth in level one high-tech industry was strong in the state over the year ending with the first quarter of 2008 as the metropolitan areas of Dayton, Akron, and Cleveland performed notably well. Over the year ending with the first quarter of 2008, level one high-tech employment expanded 2.9% in the state compared to a 0.7% drop in overall employment. Level one job gains included computer systems design and related services (+2,655 jobs), software publishers (+1,032), scientific research and development services (+790), and aerospace product and parts manufacturing (+576). Wages and salaries, which include bonuses and stock options, increased 8.5% in level one high-tech industries compared to a 0.1% drop in overall industry.
Though the Dayton metropolitan area has been challenged by job losses in the auto industry, level one high-tech employment expanded 6.6% in the region over the year ending with the first quarter of 2008, the best growth among the six largest metros in the state. High-tech job growth in Dayton included 343 added jobs in computer systems design and related services and 60 additional jobs in aerospace product and parts manufacturing. Over the same period, level one high-tech industry employment grew 5.6% in the Akron metro area and 5.1% in the Cleveland metro area. Job growth in level one industries in Akron was led by a 261-job gain in computer systems design and related services. Growth in Cleveland included computer systems design and related services (+1,107 jobs); architectural, engineering, and related services (+334); and semiconductor and other electronic component manufacturing (+152).
The Congressional Office of Technology Assessment describes high-technology firms as those that are engaged in the design, development, and introduction of new products and innovative manufacturing processes, or both, through the systematic application of scientific and technical knowledge. No set of NAICS codes can perfectly capture high-tech employment. The Ohio Economic Trends—the publication from which the above data were taken—uses a high-tech industry definition suggested by Daniel Hecker in "High Technology Employment: a NAICS-based update" (Monthly Labor Review, July 2005), but modified to reflect the 2007 revision of NAICS codes. Level one high-tech industries are those employing 5 or more times the average of high-tech occupations. Level two employs 3.0 to 4.9 times the average of these occupations and level three are the remaining that employ at least 2 times the average.
OnStage A web-based collaboration / project management service. There's a free version as well as multiple language versions. Scribd's iPaper is integrated so you can view files in the browser. The company has been around since 1999 and offers phone customer service.
The third quarter 2008 edition of the Virginia Economic Trends has been released and is available for
purchase through this website. The feature story in this issue, written by Second Pillar Consulting, looks at the
impact of proposed regulatory changes on Virginia’s banking industry that will affect
both borrowers and investors. The authors, Geoffrey Rubin and William Nayda,
found that 97% of the Virginia-based banks can potentially gain capital relief
through the proposed regulations known as Basel II.
The Virginia Economic Trends provides leading indexes for
Virginia and each of the eleven metropolitan areas in the state. Components of
the index include automobile registrations and single-family building permits
data, indicators both in long-term decline.
Over the twelve months ending June 2008, the moving average
of automobile registrations dropped 19.0% in Virginia. Every state metro area
experienced a decline over this period with changes varying from a 9.1% drop in
Bristol to a 23.8% fall in Hampton Roads. At 29,567 per month in June 2008,
registrations in the state were at their lowest since August 1997.
Single-family building permits continued to fall in
Virginia, dropping in every state metro area over the last year. Over the
twelve months ending June 2008, the permits average fell 35.2% in Virginia to
1,521 per month, less than 40% of the peak rate reached in January 2005. For
the year ending June 2008, Roanoke (-5.6%) was the only state metro to avoid a
double-digit percentage decrease. The hardest hit metros were Northern Virginia
(-43.9%), Danville (-41.0%), and Winchester (-35.2%).
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