The Inland Empire office serves the greater Riverside, San Bernardino and a portion of Los Angeles counties. This region offers a tremendous industrial base of inventory, with retail and office playing a secondary role in development. The Riverside-San Bernardino (MSA) has witnessed annual unemployment rates drop from 11.0% in 1993 to 5.0% in 2005.
Nonfarm wage and salary employment in the Inland Empire is expected to grow the fastest of any MSA in California, or nearly 3 percent annually between 2002 and 2012. The 318,300 new jobs will raise employment to nearly 1.4 million by 2012. The rate of job growth is 1.6 times that of the state of California as a whole. Two-thirds of all new nonfarm wage and salary jobs are forecasted to occur in Professional & Business Services (17%), Government (15%), Retail Trade (13%), Construction (11%), and Education & Health Services (11%).
Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities is the fastest growing major industry sector with an annual growth rate of 5 percent, which reflects the key role the Inland Empire plays in transportation for the greater Los Angeles region. Professional & Business Services is also forecasted to grow nearly at 5 percent. Except for the Information sector, all other major industry sectors expect substantially higher job growth than for California as a whole largely due to sizable continued population increases in this MSA.
The Inland Empire is a dynamic region for commercial use and will continue to grow with a greater availability of development opportunities compared to its Southern California competitors.
|