First, the good news: Building permits and help wanted ads have both been trending upward for the past three months while unemployment insurance claims have been going down, according to the latest issue of the Humboldt Economic Index. These three categories are considered the best indicators of where our local economy is headed (i.e. the […]
economy
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2,600 fewer jobs
efficiently. The jobless rate in Humboldt County crept higher in October, according to stats just released from the California Employment Development Department’s Dennis Mullins, who works in the EDD’s North Coast Region, Labor Market Information Division. In October, the unemployment rate hit 11.1 percent. It was 10.4 percent in September. But we’re doing better than […]
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Big Sneaky Burl Elephant
Oh, burl! The L.A. Times has managed to feature Poor Orick in an economic-fallout story and deftly dodge The Answer To Why Has Poor Orick Gone Doggone Belly Up? No, it isn’t the writer’s thesis: The slow housing market, which led to the closure of the town’s last mill on Oct. 15. The slowdown is […]
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Housing Prices Continue to Tumble
In August, homes in Arcata reached their highest affordability level in more than five years while countywide affordability reached its second-highest mark since May of 2004, according to data released today by the Humboldt Association of Realtors. The median price of homes sold in Humboldt County during August fell to $259,000, down $16,000 from the […]
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Furloughed? Learn eBay!
Furloughed? Learn eBay!: Humboldt State sponsors a lecture series for furloughed employees. Make up those lost dollars through needlework, or by selling crap on eBay! (h/t
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The Humboldt County Stimulus
businesses.The Humboldt County Stimulus: ProPublica details all known recipients of federal stimulus dollars county-by-county. In Humboldt, anyway, the education and housing sectors are the big
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CRC Orick Mill to Close
up!CRC Orick Mill to Close: The tiny town to our north loses 47 jobs as California Redwood Co. moves to consolidate the Orick sawmill with the Korbel mothership, reports
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The NEC’s Subprime Mortgage
Real estate deals may not have impoverished the Northcoast Environmental Center, but they sure didn’t help By now we’ve all heard plenty of stories about people who bought houses they couldn’t afford, at the top of the market and with no money down. Those luckless homeowners, many of them foreclosed upon long ago, will forever […]
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Humboldt’s housing rebound
The latest numbers on county-wide housing affordability reveal something of an upward trend — in prices, that is, not affordability. According to the Humboldt Association of Realtors, which compiles these figures, the median price of Humboldt County homes sold in May (these things take a while to compile, apparently) rose for the third straight month. […]
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Food Freedom! Laundry Liberation!
Because what could be more liberating than financial independence? Oh, sure, life and liberty and the whole pursuit of happiness thing factor in, but have you priced them lately? Well, I can’t solve your big problems – refusing to save, spending more than you earn, insisting on indulging in those optional treats like education, health […]
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Palco Severance Comes Through!
Feel-good story of the week: 51-year-old Eureka resident Brian Connors, a friend of the Journal, has been one of the unluckiest people in Humboldt County in recent years. Back in December 2006 he was laid off from his job at Pacific Lumber. Then company’s then-parent corporation, the infamous Maxxam, promised him and 89 other laid-off […]
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Wave of the future
Wave of the future: The pun is so obvious as to be painful, but give them a break — they’re just investors. This “premier financial website for actionable stock market opinion and analysis” tells you, yes YOU, how to make money from wave energy…specifically via Finavera Renewables, the Canadian company building a wave farm right […]