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Fontana Herald News
May 4, 2020
The Inland Empire Report on Business showed that the local Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) declined to 41.8 percent from the previous month’s 43.3 percent, below the baseline 50 percent, according to authors Barbara Sirotnik, CSUSB professor of information and decision studies, and Lori Aldana, project coordinator, of the Institute of Applied Research at Cal State San Bernardino.
“There are only eight months since the inception of the report in 1993 that the PMI has been lower – most of those were during the great recession in 2008/2009,” the authors said.
“Considering the pandemic ravaging the world, it is not surprising that the PMI would be as low as it is. Non-essential businesses have been shuttered and residents in most states have been ordered to stay home. Of course, some people have the financial means to keep purchasing the products they want (assuming that those products can be produced and delivered). And it is possible that pent-up demand from these individuals will help the economy rebound when the businesses reopen. But another large group of individuals are now on the unemployment rolls and are barely holding on, and those people are unlikely to make any purchases other than the essentials.”
Read the whole article at "Coronavirus pandemic causes major damage to Inland Empire economy, new report says."
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