Temporary hiring in the Los Angeles area has stopped its downward slide and is beginning to flatten out. OK, that doesn’t sound like a big deal. But these days even small nuggets of good news are tasty morsels.
“It’s been moving sort of sideways and that’s good,” said Jack Kyser, founding economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
And some businesses even say they are starting to give employees more work. It could be in the form of overtime or restoring hours that had been cut.
“The first thing you do when things are turning around is to give overtime and extend hours,” said economist William Roberts, director of the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center at California State University, Northridge.
He also makes the following point.
“The first sign unemployment is easing will be an increase in part-time and temporary hiring.”
That’s because businesses hedge their bets by using temps and part-timers rather than hiring full-time employees. They want to see if the increase in business holds up.
And while temporary help hitting a plateau is definitely not a trend, it may signal one is finally on the horizon.
Extend the tax credit
With home sales on the rebound, there is a big lobbying push to get the $8,000 federal homebuying tax credit extended before it expires at the end of next month.
The latest pitch came Friday afternoon from the California Association of Realtors calling for the U.S. Senate to “swiftly” adopt the Dodd-Lieberman-Isakson amendment to extend credit until next June 30.This is no surprise. Realtors have taken a beating during the recession and would like to see their fortunes reversed.
“The success of the home buyer tax credit and its positive impact on the real estate market is clear,” association President James Liptak said in an e-mail.
He said association research found that nearly 40 percent of first-time buyers said they would not have purchased a home if the credit was not in play.
But the part I like best is that the amendment would extend the credit to all buyers, not just first-timers.
It would also raise the qualifying income limits to $150,000 for single buyers and $300,000 for those filing joint income tax returns.
Other provisions in the Dodd-Lieberman-Isakson amendment would enable taxpayers to claim the credit on purchases completed in 2010 on their 2009 income tax returns.
OK, I admit to a personal financial interest in this.
My wife and I are considered move-up buyers but are going to stay put in our two-story, four bedroom two-and-a-half bath Valley tract abode.
We might be able to find a house a little nicer than ours but it would still cost a lot more than what we paid in 1998.
But maybe a shot at an $8,000 tax credit might make us think about moving up.