Slowly but surely, Stanislaus County economy is climbing

So is the local economy improving or not? The answer is mostly yes, with numerous asterisks.

As last week's outlook from the University of the Pacific Business Forecasting Center stated, Stanislaus County employment numbers are climbing but slowly (see the Feb. 13 article on modbee.com).

Another outlook comes from Stanislaus Alliance, which does an annual survey of employers. Of the 215 managers and owners who responded to the 2013 questionnaire, nearly 60 percent indicated that they expected their revenue to be up this year, but less than 40 percent indicated that they would be hiring more people.

The economy remains the No. 1 concern of employers, followed by taxes-fees, regulations and insurance costs. Not surprisingly, about 63 percent were very or somewhat uncertain about implementation of the federal Affordable Care Act, much of which will be implemented in 2014.

The alliance survey results are available at www.stanalliance.com. The UOP forecast can be read at http://forecast.pacific.edu.