Home sales, employment, and manufacturing increased in the current quarter while retail sales, hospitality, and energy declined. The largest decrease was in retail sales. To indicate economic activity in the coming month, we track four leading indicators. These are help-wanted advertising, building permits issued, manufacturing orders, and claims for unemployment insurance. Help-wanted advertising is up sharply, but manufacturing orders are down and claims for unemployment insurance are up.
Building permits are essentially unchanged.
Using our econometric forecast, we believe that the index of economic activity for Humboldt County will rise slightly in November suggesting that the economy will continue its strong fourth-quarter performance.