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| Construction activity hits a 20-year-low in Sarasota County
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| Sarasota County construction peaked at $2.03 billion in 2006, but dropped to $311 million last year, according to new figures from the county appraiser's office. That decline hit the local economy as the Bradenton-Sarasota area shed 14,000 construction jobs.
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| @ Sarasota Herald Tribune | Posted: 08/03/09 at 0201 EDST
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| 'Junk mail' deliveries drop off
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| If your mailbox is empty more often these days, you’re not alone: Last year saw the biggest decline in U.S. mail since the Depression.
The drop-off is steeper in Southwest Florida, said Anne Murray, postmaster for the cities of Fort Myers and Cape Coral. Year-to-date, volume is down about 18 percent. “Southwest Florida is hurting more than some other parts of the country. That’s impacted all of the businesses.”
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| @ Ft. Myers News Press | Posted: 08/03/09 at 0315 EDST
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| State Farm plans its strategy to exit Florida
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| Heading into the most active months of the hurricane season, upcoming regulatory decisions will radically change Florida's property-insurance market and determine the future for millions of consumers. Pending before Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty are negotiations and decisions about the state's two largest property insurers, State Farm Florida and government-run Citizens Property Insurance. The two are separate but inextricably entwined.
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| @ Pensacola News Journal | Posted: 08/03/09 at 0320 EDST
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| Apartment vacancies up —rents near 2005 levels in Orlando area
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| Orlando's multifamily-housing market had a 10 percent vacancy rate in June, up slightly from the end of last year. The average rent for the market through the second quarter was $803, close to 2005 levels. Most properties are offering a month's free rent to attract tenants.
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| @ Orlando Sentinel | Posted: 08/03/09 at 0330 EDST
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| Resurgence of nuclear power not likely to happen
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| Perhaps most significant, prices of natural gas have plunged over the past year. Cheap to build and cleaner than coal, gas-fired power plants represent the best bet by far at the moment, though commodity-market volatility could change the calculations in a hurry.
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| @ Chicago Tribune | Posted: 08/03/09 at 0345 EDST
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| As payrolls shrink, so do hours on job in Illinois
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| The average workweek for most of the country’s rank-and-file employees has decreased by 48 minutes since the recession began. Had it not, the unemployment rate would be much higher. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nonsalaried production workers — roughly four-fifths of the U.S. work force — clocked an average 33-hour workweek in June. That’s the lowest since 1964, when the BLS began tracking the figures.
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| @ Rockford Register Star | Posted: 08/03/09 at 0400 EDST
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| Poised for a Rebound
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| The good-bad news in second-quarter GDP
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| @ Wall Street Journal | Posted: 08/03/09 at 0415 EDST
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| Ford to post U.S. sales rise in July from year-ago
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| The July increase marks Ford's first year-over-year monthly rise since November 2007, just before the U.S. economic downturn began, and the first increase for any of the largest automakers since the start of the financial crisis a year ago.
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| @ Reuters | Posted: 08/03/09 at 0419 EDST
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| Shipping in the downturn. Sea of troubles.
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| The recession is buffeting the world of shipping—with even rougher waters ahead
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| @ The Economist | Posted: 08/03/09 at 0646 EDST
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| Spain's Unemployment to Reach 22% in 2010
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| Figures published today confirm that the pace of job destruction did slow in the spring. But a large part of the improvement occurred in the construction sector, primarily due to the impact of government support measures.
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| @ Kyero.com | Posted: 08/03/09 at 0652 EDST
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| UK housing market to return to growth by 2014
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| House prices could rise by 20 per cent from 2012 to 2014 as a shortage of properties being built puts pressure on the market, according to forecasts published today. The National Housing Federation (NHF) said that prices will fall by 12.2 per cent in total this year and 4.6 per cent next year before stabilising in 2011, with a 1.1 per cent rise.
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| @ London Times | Posted: 08/03/09 at 0655 EDST
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