Ambassador of the Month Archive

Destination Irvine Generates Nearly $12 Million in Hotel Revenue

Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Destination Irvine has generated nearly $12 million in hotel revenue year-to-date for the 2018-2019 fiscal year, with four months still to go. The total revenue generated is a combination of direct group sales and marketing campaigns conducted by the Greater Irvine Chamber’s destination marketing organization. Direct group sales efforts have brought in more than $5 million in revenue, and filled more than 22,800 room nights for meetings groups, sports events, leisure visitors, and business travelers. Destination Irvine this year launched several marketing campaigns, a CBS social influencer and digital campaign, Orange County joint marketing Expedia campaigns, and for the first time, an...

California Still a Top Exporting State

Thursday, March 14, 2019

The U.S. Department of Commerce now has 2018 trade statistics available through the International Trade Administration’s (ITA) “Trade Stats Express.” In 2018, California exported $178.4 billion to 230 foreign economies, up from $172 billion in 2017. California’s top export markets are Mexico, Canada, China, Japan, and South Korea. California is one of the 10 largest economies in the world with a gross state product of more than $2.5 trillion. International trade and investment are major parts of the state’s economic engine that broadly benefit businesses, communities, consumers and state government. California’s economy is diverse, and the state’s prosperity is tied to exports...

US Adds Just 20K Jobs; Unemployment Dips to 3.8 Percent

Monday, March 11, 2019

Hiring tumbled in February, with U.S. employers adding just 20,000 jobs, the smallest monthly gain in nearly a year and a half. The slowdown in hiring, though, might have been depressed by harsh winter weather and the partial shutdown of the government. Last month’s weak gain came after employers had added a blockbuster 311,000 jobs in January, the most in nearly a year. And over the past three months, job growth has averaged a solid 186,000, enough to lower the unemployment rate over time. Despite the tepid pace of hiring in February, the government’s monthly jobs report included several positive signs that...

Advocacy Releases “Small Business GDP, 1998–2014”

Thursday, March 07, 2019

Small businesses are the lifeblood of the U.S. economy: they create two-thirds of net new jobs and drive U.S. innovation and competitiveness. A new report shows that they account for 44 percent of U.S. economic activity. This is a significant contribution, however this overall share has declined gradually. U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) is the market value of the goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States. Across the 16 years from 1998 to 2014, the small business share of GDP has fallen from 48.0 percent to 43.5 percent. Over the same period, the amount of...

Survey: US Businesses Added a Solid 183,000 Jobs Last Month

Thursday, March 07, 2019

are continuing to hire even as economic growth is likely slowing. Payroll processor ADP said that last month’s job gains were down from the 300,000 added in January, a figure that was revised up sharply from 213,000. It was also below last year’s average monthly gain of about 235,000. Hiring occurred across all major industries tracked by ADP, including professional and business services, which includes high-paying fields such as accounting and engineering, which gained 49,000 jobs. Education and health care added 37,000. Construction gained 25,000 jobs and manufacturing 17,000. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, a forecasting firm that compiles the ADP...

Trade Policies and Tax Reform Are Working For Small Businesses

Thursday, March 07, 2019

During the State of the Union, President Trump highlighted the bold changes to trade policies and tax reform that he is making in order to fight for American workers and businesses that will expand prosperity. This reform is working. Based out of Chino, Thin Metal Sales had been experiencing a decline in sales due to the high availability of imported, low-cost steel. Jonathan Mulvihill knows his company inside and out since he began working summers at Thin Metal Sales at the age of 12. The company was founded by his uncle in 1976 and acquired by his father in 1983; in 2017...

Successful Greater Irvine Chamber-Led Delegation to UK Showing FDI Progress

Wednesday, March 06, 2019

The Greater Irvine Chamber in February led a delegation focused on foreign direct investment and composed of Irvine city officials, executives, and lifescience and technology experts to London, where they formally interviewed company executives from those industry sectors who are considering expansion to the U.S. “Two previous missions and a lot of groundwork and follow-up has enhanced the reputation of Irvine in the U.K. so that company executives were eager to meet with us and discuss expansion opportunities,” said Linda DiMario, executive vice president, Greater Irvine Chamber. “Our foreign direct investment work is gaining measureable traction and progress among U.K. lifescience companies...

Irvine’s Balanced Checkbook

Friday, March 01, 2019

By Bryan Starr, president and CEO, Greater Irvine Chamber, as seen in the March issue of Irvine Standard. You probably know Irvine has been ranked No. 1 in public safety for 13 consecutive years. But you might not know why. One reason is another No. 1 ranking Irvine just received: Tops in California in fiscal strength — beating every other large city from San Francisco to San Jose to San Diego. How did the city become so fiscally strong? Think of the well-maintained shopping centers you visit, and the strength of your home value. Retail and property taxes fund two-thirds of the city’s budget. Now think...

Canada-California Trade

Friday, February 22, 2019

Consul generals for Canada and Mexico are joining California Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Allan Zaremberg for a panel on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The new trade arrangement came from a year of negotiations after Trump disregarded the former North American Free Trade Agreement as the “worst deal ever made.” Amid the settling in to a new agreement, Canada wants to send a clear message: We love you California. As San Francisco’s Consul General of Canada Rana Sarkar told The Sacramento Bee, “Canadians often fly under the radar, but we are significant partners with the state of California.” According to Global Affairs Canada, California...

China to Propose $30 Billion More U.S. Agriculture Purchases

Friday, February 22, 2019

China is proposing that it could buy an additional $30 billion a year of U.S. agricultural products including soybeans, corn and wheat as part of a possible trade deal being negotiated by the two countries, according to people with knowledge of the plan. The offer to buy the extra farm produce would be part of the memoranda of understanding under discussion by U.S. and Chinese negotiators in Washington, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are confidential. The purchases would be on top of pre-trade war levels and continue for the period covered by the memoranda, they said. U.S. Agriculture...

NAFTA 2.0 Creates Freer, Fairer Economic Growth

Friday, February 22, 2019

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) underscores a renewed understating among the USMCA parties on the importance of our mutual trading relationships, everyone agreed yesterday at an international luncheon at the California Chamber of Commerce to celebrate Canada Day in Sacramento. With the support of the Consulates General of Canada of San Francisco and Los Angeles and the Consulate General of Mexico in Sacramento, experts convened at the CalChamber for a thorough update and discussion on the agreement with more than 100 attendees. The Honorable Zaib Shaikh, the new Consul General of Canada in Los Angeles set the tone for the discussion saying...

Applied Innovation Doubling Cove Footprint at UCI Park

Thursday, February 21, 2019

The Cove, the University of California-Irvine’s tech facility and office space that is home to the school’s Applied Innovation business and entrepreneur incubator program, is gearing up to expand its presence in Orange County’s startup scene. UCI Applied Innovation this month told the Business Journal that it had put the finishing touches on a new lease that will nearly double the Cove’s square footage at UCI Research Park, a 36-building business park next to the university that’s run by Newport Beach-based Irvine Co. Applied Innovation currently occupies about 46,000 square feet of space at UCI Research Park; its new home will run...

Federal Tax Changes Could Be Why California’s Budget Is More Than $2 Billion Below Projections

Thursday, February 21, 2019

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s hopes for a record-setting tax revenue windfall this year could depend on whether California’s wealthiest residents are simply waiting until the last moment to pay up — a reaction to the 2017 federal tax changes championed by President Trump. State financial experts reported fiscal year-to-date revenues are more than $2.3 billion below the expectations set by Newsom’s first spending plan. But they believe the money is simply delayed, not missing. “We don’t think it reflects any underlying weakness in the economy,” said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the California Department of Finance. Instead, what state economists are now projecting is...

Irvine Tops List in Financial Health

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Irvine is the financially healthiest big city in America, according to a new study by a nonprofit dedicated to financial transparency in the public sector. “Irvine is a community that was master-planned for success from its inception more than 50 years ago. Its founders planned the city to ensure sustainable fiscal strength long into the future,” said Bryan Starr, president and CEO,Greater Irvine Chamber. “It comes as no surprise that Irvine has been recognized for its financial health.” California’s other big cities fall firmly in the middle, with Southern California burgs healthier than many of their Northern California counterparts, says Chicago-based watchdog group Truth in Accounting. The...

NLRB Empowers Companies to Treat More Workers as Independent Contractors

Monday, January 28, 2019

The National Labor Relations Board made it easier for companies to treat their workers as independent contractors excluded from federal labor protections, overturning an Obama-era precedent. By a 3-1 party-line vote, Republican board members sided against shuttle van drivers for SuperShuttle, who were seeking to unionize at Dallas-Fort Worth airport. The NLRB ruled that they were independent contractors, not employees, and therefore weren’t protected by a New Deal-era law enshrining workers’ right to organize. The board overruled a 2014 case, FedEx Home Delivery, in which a Democratic majority on the NLRB had established a standard making it easier for workers to be...

US Treasury Set to Borrow $1 Trillion for a Second Year to Finance the Deficit

Monday, January 28, 2019

The U.S. Treasury Department is set to maintain elevated sales of long-term debt to finance the government’s widening budget deficit, with new issuance projected to top $1 trillion for a second-straight year. Many strategists at primary-dealer firms predict that the Jan. 30 quarterly refunding announcement will see the Treasury maintain note and bond sales at the record high levels they have boosted them to in recent months. The total amount of 3-, 10- and 30-year securities to be offered at next week’s refunding auctions is seen by most at $84 billion. While that’s $1 billion more than the total for these maturities three months...

Irvine City Management Addresses Packed House at January Economic Vitality Council Meeting

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Irvine’s city management team provided an update on its plans for the upcoming year to a packed house during the Greater Irvine Chamber’s January Economic Vitality Council (EVC) meeting. “Irvine is a city of tremendous ambition. It was born of ambition. Irvine has a great past and an even greater future ahead of it,” Irvine City Manager John Russo said to more than 60 business and community leaders that attended the meeting. Among other topics, Russo discussed plans and progress at the Orange County Great Park. Maryanna Marisheva, assistant city manager, provided details of Irvine’s newly approved two-year budget. Pete Carmichael, director of...

2019 Will ‘Be a Good Year,’ Economist Says

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

“It’s going to be a good year. Things are wonderful. You’re going to have a great 2019,” said expert economist and Greater Irvine Chamber Business Outlook keynote Chris Thornberg of Beacon Economics. In his economic forecast presented to more than 600 business and community leaders, Thornberg, who predicted the housing market crash in 2007, expressed overall optimism regarding economic growth in the year ahead. He attributed his positive outlook to rising wages, low unemployment, and increased consumer spending. Also confident moving into the new year was opening speaker Chris Schwarz of the UCI Paul Merage School of Business, who broke down recent...

Newsom Elevates Labor Commissioner Su to Head State Agency; Picks Business Founder/Forward Thinker as Chief Economic Adviser

Monday, January 14, 2019

The team Governor Gavin Newsom has selected to lead key efforts in his administration includes individuals with many years of experience in both governing and advising policymakers. Two appointments of particular interest to employers are: • Julie Su, state Labor Commissioner in the Brown administration, as secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA); and • Lenny Mendonca, longtime advocate for rethinking government operations as co-chairman of the nonprofit organization California Forward, as chief economic and business adviser and director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz). As labor commissioner and chief of the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement...

Ambassador of the Month Archive

Subscribe for our updates

Back to Portal