Our mission is to advance the economic vitality of greater Irvine.
Our core initiatives are to be a catalyst for local economic growth, champion for the business community with all levels of government, and to convene greater Irvine stakeholders.
California is more prepared to weather an economic storm than nearly any other state in the nation. According to a new report from Wallet Hub, California is the second least exposed state in the U.S. to the economic impacts of coronavirus. “California’s increase in the number of unemployment insurance initial claims is among the lowest in the country,” Jill Gonzalez of Wallet Hub, tells GlobeSt.com. “The state also has the fifth largest share of workers with access to paid sick leave, 91%. Another factor that contributed to California’s economy being the second least exposed to the coronavirus is the state’s rainy-day fund, which is among the largest nationwide.” The list was compiled using a number of rankings, including high-risk industries’ share of the state GDP, share of employment from highly impacted industries, unemployment insurance claims, and rainy-day state funds. “We used ten key metrics to determine this ranking. We chose these metrics as they are indicators of how economies will be impacted, and of the resources businesses have to cope with the crisis,” says Gonzalez. “The metrics include the share of each state’s GDP and workforce from the most affected industries, the increase in the number of unemployment insurance initial claims, the shar...
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Small businesses are a bedrock of American life, employing friends, neighbors, and nearly half of California’s workforce. They aren’t just companies, they are cornerstones of our communities. And with the significant public health and economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, California’s four million small businesses are being forced to make difficult decisions about how to keep their businesses afloat, their staff employed, and their rents or mortgages covered. As communities work to combat this public health threat together, it’s more evident than ever that the viability of small businesses is critical to America’s families. Last week, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act providing $2 trillion to support the U.S. health care system, state and local governments, workers, and businesses to overcome the health and economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. Specifically, for small businesses, it created the $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program. The Paycheck Protection Program allows small business owners and qualified 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations (having up to 500 employees or less) to access loans in the amount of 2.5 times average monthly payroll (and up to a maximum of $10 million) to be used for payroll continuity, rent, and utilities assistance. If a business or nonprofit uses th...
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The new Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) has dominated employers’ attention with its provisions for emergency paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave for reasons related to COVID-19, also known as coronavirus. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has been trying to answer employers’ questions leading up to April 1, but one issue that remained unclear was the documentation employers should obtain from employees taking leave under the new law. On April 1, 2020, the same day the FFCRA took effect, the DOL issued regulations that specifically addressed the issue. The new FFCRA regulations require employees to provide notice to their employers of their need to take either paid sick leave or expanded family and medical leave, and the notice must include the following information: Employee’s name; Date(s) for which leave is requested; Qualifying reason for the leave; and Oral or written statement that the employee is unable to work because of the qualified reason. Employees must also provide additional information specific to the qualifying reason for leave (find the list of qualifying reasons here), including: If the employee is subject to a quarantine or isolation order, the name of the government entity that issued the order; If the employee has been advised to self-quarantin...
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The Federal Reserve announced it would create a new program to finance loans that banks and other lenders make through the government’s emergency small-business lending program. The move will free up financial firms to make more loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration’s Payroll Protection Program (PPP), part of a $2.2 trillion economic relief package President Trump signed last month to help individuals and businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic. In a statement the Fed said that to facilitate more lending to small businesses, it would establish a facility that offers term financing backed by PPP loans. It said additional details would be announced later this week. The Fed has been working on the program with the Treasury Department. The loans are designed to cover about two months of payroll expenses and other essential costs, and can be forgiven if businesses maintain the size of their workforce. The banking industry has been pressing the Trump administration to set up a program to purchase the loans from lenders who originate them, which would help free up banks’ balance sheets so they can make more of the loans. The loans don’t require the Fed or the Treasury to take on the risk of bearing losses because the...
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