16 Quotes by Jim Wunderman

What a difference three months make. This is strong news for our economy and Bay Area workers.

What a difference three months makes. This is strong news for our economy and Bay Area workers. Last quarter, with the hurricanes and spike in energy costs, local confidence plunged to the worst level in 33 months, and many survey respondents were considering postponing new hiring. As we suspected, that now appears to have been only a momentary shock, and the Bay Area business community expects the region's economy to steadily improve.

We've finally been able to get political leaders to agree that it's time for a major infrastructure investment. Things are moving in the right direction.

I think people realize what's at stake here.

Transportation is something that people feel every day. It's an ugly problem. It's very, very frustrating.

Transportation has been a top problem for a decade. It's finally getting traction with elected leaders.

First and foremost transportation. Every time we ask, Bay Area business leaders and voters tell us that's the number one headache in the Bay Area. Number two education ... third is affordable housing.

Continuing historical trends, the Bay Area has clearly emerged from the most recent recession in a strong position. Bay Area employers are in the center of one of the world's most dominant and rapidly growing economic hubs. That said, economic conditions change extremely rapidly. Forces that many would argue are in our control are at this very moment rapidly eroding our economic advantage.

The signs are about as bright as they've been for a long time. We've got the highest confidence in hiring that we've seen since we started doing the survey, with the biggest spread between employers planning to hire and those planning to diminish their workforce.