NOT LIKE THE OTHERS:

Businesses' Big-Ticket Purchases Raise Hopes (Tom Petruno, March 19, 2005, LA Times)

More firms are boosting spending on updated equipment and are giving the green light to expansion projects.

The continuing surge in so-called capital spending by businesses is raising hopes that it will bolster U.S. economic growth this year and in 2006. The timing couldn't be better because high oil prices and rising interest rates could cause a retrenchment by American consumers, whose spending has largely carried the economy in this decade.

What's more, companies' willingness to open their wallets wider for new equipment, buildings and software should eventually translate into significant job growth, some analysts say. That would end a relatively paltry period of employment gains since 2002, as many executives have balked at adding staff.

"There tends to be a strong correlation between capital spending and employment" in the long run, said John Lonski, an economist at Moody's Investors Service in New York.

State Adds Jobs, Helped by Housing (Jerry Hirsch, March 19, 2005, LA Times)

In a sign that California is beginning to keep pace with national economic growth, employers in the state added 27,600 net new jobs in February, the best showing since October, the Employment Development Department reported Friday.

The state's unemployment rate was unchanged from January's revised 5.8%.

Construction activity, fueled by California's torrid real estate sector, continued to act as an economic engine by creating 10,700 jobs last month. Construction now employs 880,900 workers, a 6.4% gain from a year earlier.

Other segments of the state's economy also demonstrated growth.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 19, 2005 9:23 AM