Controller's Office Report: Economic Barometer: Quarter 1, 2013

BOMA San Francisco Members:

The Office of the Controller has issued the Economic Barometer: Quarter 1, 2013. The Economic Barometer gives users the ability to make their own tables and chart with data on San Francisco's economy.

Highlights:

• In April 2013, unemployment rates fell below 6% for the first time since October 2008 to 5.4%.
• Much of the employment growth has been driven by the Construction industry, which grew by nearly 14% in the San Francisco Metro Division.
• The growth in construction employment is supported by an increase new building permits, which started seeing year-to-year growth in the 2^nd quarter of 2012.
• Average quarterly number of units in buildings with new permits are up by nearly 50% from last year.

About the Economic Barometer

The purpose of the Economic Barometer (EB) is to provide the public, elected officials, and City staff with a current snapshot of San Francisco economic indicators. The EB reviews general economy-wide employment indicators, as well as major sectors of San Francisco's economy, including real estate, tourism, and retail.

The Controller has created a website that will, going forward, be a repository for this information.  The site can be accessed at http://sfbarometer.weebly.com.  Updates can also be accessed onTwitter: https://twitter.com/sfcontroller

Recent changes to the Economic Barometer

• The Economic Barometer is now part of the SFOpenBook transparency portal.
• Quarterly residential rent was added to the Real Estate indicators.
• Government performance measures have been added to the Build Your Own visual.