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“The June increase of 155,900 is positive news. However, the net effect is that labor demand was basically flat for the first six months of 2014,” said June Shelp, Vice President at The Conference Board. “There is churn in the labor market as people change jobs. Most of the gains since last June were in the lower-paying service jobs, not the higher-paying professional jobs.”

Since June 2013, advertised vacancies for professional jobs dropped by almost 80,000 while service/production jobs gained a total of 170,000 vacancies. Since last June, employer demand has been down for the higher-paying professional jobs (where the average pay ranges from $34/hour to $53/hour). Professional occupations like managers (-8,300), business and finance workers (-11,200), and even computer workers (-51,000) all dropped. In contrast, lower-paying jobs (where the pay ranges from just over $10/hour to $20/hour) gained. Transportation workers (+73,000), office support (+42,100), production workers (+19,300), and construction (+19,300) all rose.

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“This project is just another example of the mayor’s ongoing commitment to revitalizing our urban core,” City Manager Bruce Rudd said. “This corner lot has sat lifeless for several years and the future retail space planned for this site will have an enormous impact on quality of the surrounding area.”

Centrally located, the Mid State Shopping Center is an ideal location for a Vallarta Supermarket serving customers on both sides of Highway 99.  Vallarta’s confidence in Fresno is demonstrated in its commitment to serve as the anchor tenant of a brand-new shopping center and investing in the new construction of a building rather than renovating a previously occupied space.

“My office has worked closely with the Noyan Company on several projects in District One,” Council Member Blong Xiong said. “Helping them secure Vallarta Supermarket for the Clinton and Weber project is by far one of the most satisfying.  For almost eight years we’ve known this development would revitalize the area and the supermarket will provide a much needed service to the area.”

Vallarta Supermarkets offer a wide variety of Latin foods and products which can only be found at its stores including meat cut to order Latin style, spices, hot foods ready to eat, sweet breads made daily, and fresh produce in addition to other products carried at traditional grocery stores.

The future Mid State Shopping Center will stand at approximately 85,000 square feet with Vallarta Supermarket occupying 45,000 square feet.  Commercial shops will be phased in to complete the balance of the center.

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To enter the contest, participants can stop by any of the 20 conveniently located Central Valley Community Bank branches established throughout the Valley. There is also an opportunity to win a basket through social media; participants are asked to “like” the Central Valley Community Bank Facebook or follow it on Twitter (@CVCBNews) and then comment on one of the Valley Grown For You posts during the contest period. Participants must be 21 years of age or older and entries are limited to one entry per person in-branch and one through social media. Official rules for the contest are available at all Central Valley Community Bank branches, online at www.cvcb.com and through links on social media page posts dedicated to the Valley Grown For You campaign.

With the San Joaquin Valley consistently leading the nation in agricultural production, it serves as a hotbed for agribusiness, manufacturing innovation and economic impact.  The Valley makes up 72 percent of California’s $44.7 billion agricultural value and the region supplies over 25 percent of the nation’s food, according to 2012 County Crop Reports.

Central Valley Community Bank partners with numerous growers, manufacturers, and packers, all of whom make the Valley the revered worldwide agricultural model it has become.

“This is just a small way for us to give back to the communities that we are so invested in,” said Dan Doyle, CEO for Central Valley Community Bank. “We’re excited to showcase some of the delicious local food products that come from right here in our own backyard.”

The local food products that are being featured in the Valley Grown For You enter-to-win basket are listed below.

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Their project was recognized at the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) National Engineering Design Competition in Portland, where they competed against hundreds of students throughout California and nine other states. The winning students are 15-year-old Mario Ruiz and 14-year-olds Mario Castillo, Daniela De La O and Jeremiah Robinson.

The students are part of the MESA program at Fresno State’s Lyles College of Engineering. MESA encourages students — especially those from underserved populations — to learn in new and exciting ways that will prepare them to attend four-year colleges and universities.

“The MESA program prepares students to think like an engineer—explore, design, create and make it better,” said Beatrice Prieto, director of Fresno State’s MESA program. “That is what these Mendota students did throughout the school year to prepare for the national competition. They faced many challenges but never lost their concentration and always had a positive attitude. Their MESA advisor, Dave Sackrison, was a great role model who encouraged them throughout the competition.”

The competition required teams to develop a prosthetic device within a small budget to complete pre-defined tasks. Students were judged in design efficiency, dexterity, object relocation, distance accuracy, technical display, technical paper and oral presentation.

“The MESA program provides students a great opportunity to experience complex learning in engineering, science and mathematics via hands-on activities at their schools,” said Dr. Ram Nunna, dean of the Lyles College. “These experiences provide the students a foundation to pursue majors such as engineering when they enroll in college.”

MESA provides academic support and enrichment to more than 18,000 K-12 students and more than 7,800 college and university students each year. Most MESA students are economically disadvantaged, the first in their families to attend college and attend underperforming schools.

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Specifically, the survey, which tracks the thinking and actions of more than 100 CFOs from very large North American companies, recorded only a small decrease in the proportion of CFOs expressing improved optimism relative to the prior quarter. For the second quarter, 44.3 percent of CFOs expressed improving optimism while 18.6 percent expressed declining optimism – for a net optimism of plus 25.7 percentage points, down about one point since the first quarter. Since the fourth quarter of 2013, optimism has moved by less than eight percentage points – the lowest period of volatility since the survey began in 2010.

CFOs’ optimism regarding key global economies, however, dropped significantly. Sentiment regarding the performance of the Chinese economy one year from now fell for the third consecutive quarter, though it remains positive overall. Confidence in Europe’s trajectory also fell, but the long-term trend of growing confidence about the continent remains. In North America, CFOs were slightly less confident about the economy today and in one year’s time, though optimism remains relatively strong and at similar levels to recent quarters.

Overall, CFOs’ expectations for key performance metrics like earnings and sales rose, fueled by Canadian CFOs’ strong growth forecasts. Year-over-year expectations for earnings growth rose from a survey low of 7.9* percent in the first quarter to 8.9* percent, while sales jumped from 4.6* percent to 6.1* percent.

U.S. CFOs signaled declining expectations for two key metrics. Earnings growth expectations fell from 9.3* percent last quarter to 8.1* percent, and are down year-on-year from 10.3* percent. Capital spending expectations also fell for the fifth consecutive quarter to 5.1* percent. U.S. CFOs’ sales expectations did rise from 4.9* percent last quarter to 5.4* percent, but likewise remain down year-on-year.

“Net optimism is holding steady, but lower earnings and capital spending growth expectations suggest U.S. CFOs are factoring in bumps that were not on their radar screens three months ago,” said Sanford Cockrell III, national managing partner, Deloitte LLP and leader of the Deloitte CFO Program. “Nevertheless, there does seem to be some stabilization around CFOs’ sentiment and expectations.”

CFOs still indicate a bias toward pursuing opportunity over limiting risk, but they also say that government policy and regulation remain substantial barriers to growth. Talent costs were also cited as a notable impediment by 36 percent of CFOs, up slightly from last quarter and around twice the level cited one year ago. Furthermore, the obstacle of talent availability declined to 26 percent this quarter from 39 percent last quarter, though it remained higher than one year ago.

Talent costs were one of several issues noted by manufacturing CFOs, who expressed lower optimism and cited lower expectations for the year ahead than CFOs in other sectors. Thirty-nine percent expressed declining optimism, up from 18 percent last quarter, more than double the level for CFOs overall. A rise in pessimism regarding internal factors was a key driver of this decreasing optimism. Earnings expectations fell from 12.9* percent to 7.7* percent year-on-year and were down for the second consecutive quarter. Capital spending also dropped from 12.5* percent last quarter to 9.5* percent, while sales remained broadly flat as they have done for several quarters.

“CFOs’ sentiment and expectations over the last year have been less volatile. This is encouraging, but we have yet to see an acceleration in key survey metrics,” noted Greg Dickinson, director, Deloitte LLP, who leads the North American CFO Signals survey. “Weaker sentiment this quarter among U.S. and manufacturing CFOs suggests we may be waiting a while longer to see it.”

With the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) effective as of July 1, 2014, CFOs also confirmed that they still have work to do on preparation and implementation for the Act. Only eight percent of CFOs reported that they have processes in place to make the necessary withholdings as of July 1, and only nine percent that their companies have figured out how FATCA affects their non-U.S. employee plans. Overall, 14 percent have completed the classification effort, while 23 percent report that the process is underway.

“FATCA is a prime example of the complex tax environment in which today’s CFOs operate, where U.S. tax law impacts an organization’s global financial operations,” said Carl Allegretti, chairman and chief executive officer of Deloitte Tax LLP. “CFOs and their tax departments should consider working together to develop an actionable plan to address FATCA and mitigate the risks of non-compliance.”

Additional findings from the Deloitte Q2 CFO Signals survey include:

• Further cost cutting the key ask from CEOs: More than half of CFOs (58 percent) cite cost control as one of their CEOs’ top-three priorities for them to tackle, though managing performance and growing revenue are not far behind.

• Companies’ social media efforts often focus on risk management first: CFOs report substantial effort and success in establishing formal policies around employee use of social media and in educating staff around the risks and benefits. Almost 70 percent say they have utilized social media as a brand-building channel or plan to do so, but many of those who already have say results have been poor.

• CFOs do use social media to network: About 46 percent of CFOs use social media (other than email) to network with peers, though only 5 percent do it on a regular basis. Just under 45 percent of CFOs use it to identify and recruit talent, though less (only 25 percent) use social media to communicate with employees.

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The UC Merced SBDC Regional Network was selected to receive one of the FAST grant awards.  The mission of the SBDC network is to provide entrepreneurs and small businesses with high quality consulting, support for innovation, access to information and the tools necessary to build successful sustainable businesses throughout Central California.

The FAST Program is designed to stimulate economic development among small, high technology businesses through federally-funded innovation and research and development programs like the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR).  The project and budget periods are for a 12-month period.

“The FAST program is an important tool of the SBIR/STTR program.  The mission of the SBIR program is to support scientific excellence and technological innovation by investing federal research funds in small businesses. STTR focuses on partnerships between small businesses and America’s premier universities and nonprofit research institutions. It helps ensure that the world’s greatest academics and inventors have the resources they need to transform their ideas from the lab to the marketplace,” said SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet.

“SBIR and STTR are a win-win. Federal agencies are able to meet their R&D needs. Small businesses get the support they need to turn innovative new ideas into job-creating new businesses and these programs strengthen America’s competitiveness and global economic leadership.”

This year’s recipients include:

FAST provides over $90,000 per award to pay for outreach and technical assistance to science and technology-driven small businesses.  The program places particular emphasis on helping socially and economically disadvantaged firms compete in the SBA’s SBIR and STTR programs.

FAST funding awardees demonstrated in their proposals how they will help support areas such as:

• small business research and development assistance,
• technology transfer from universities to small businesses,
• technological diffusion of innovation benefiting small businesses,
• proposal development and mentoring for small businesses applying for SBIR grants; and,
• commercializing technology developed through SBIR grants.

Proposals were evaluated by a panel of SBIR program managers. The SBA, the Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation jointly reviewed the panel’s recommendations and made awards based on proposal merit. The grant required varying levels of matching funds from each participating state and territory.

Companies supported by the SBIR and STTR programs often generate some of the most important breakthroughs each year in the U.S.   For example, about 25 percent of R&D Magazine’s Top 100 Innovations come from SBIR-funded small businesses.

For more information about the FAST grants and the SBIR and STTR programs, visit www.sbir.gov.

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Forty-three percent of employers use social networking sites to research job candidates, up from 39 percent last year and 36 percent in 2012. Additionally, 12 percent of employers don’t currently research candidates on social media, but plan to start, according to the national survey, which was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder from February 10 to March 4, 2014, and included a representative sample of 2,138 hiring managers and human resource professionals, and a representative sample 3,022 full-time, private sector workers across industries and company sizes.

Beyond Social Networking
Employers aren’t limiting themselves to social networks when it comes to researching candidates’ web presences. Forty-five percent of employers use search engines such as Google to research potential job candidates, with 20 percent saying they do so frequently or always. Additionally, 12 percent of employers say they’ve reviewed a potential job candidate’s posts or comments on Glassdoor.com, Yelp.com or other ratings sites.

Helping or Hurting?
So what are employers finding on social media that’s prompting them to eliminate candidates from consideration? The most common reasons to pass on a candidate included:

• Job candidate posted provocative or inappropriate photographs or information – 46 percent
• Job candidate posted information about them drinking or using drugs – 41 percent
• Job candidates bad-mouthed their previous company or fellow employee – 36 percent
• Job candidate had poor communication skills – 32 percent
• Job candidate had discriminatory comments related to race, gender, religion etc. – 28 percent
• Job candidate lied about qualifications – 25 percent
• Job candidate shared confidential information from previous employers – 24 percent
• Job candidate was linked to criminal behavior – 22 percent
• Job candidate’s screen name was unprofessional – 21 percent
• Job candidate lied about an absence – 13 percent

However, one third (33 percent) of employers who research candidates on social networking sites say they’ve found content that made them more likely to hire a candidate. What’s more, nearly a quarter (23 percent) found content that directly led to them hiring the candidate, up from 19 percent last year.

Some of the most common reasons employers hired a candidate based on their social networking presence included:

• Got a good feel for the job candidate’s personality, could see a good fit within the company culture – 46 percent
• Job candidate’s background information supported their professional qualifications for the job – 45 percent
• Job candidate’s site conveyed a professional image – 43 percent
• Job candidate was well-rounded, showed a wide range of interests – 40 percent
• Job candidate had great communication skills – 40 percent
• Job candidate was creative – 36 percent
• Job candidate received awards and accolades – 31 percent
• Other people posted great references about the job candidate – 30 percent
• Job candidate had interacted with my company’s social media accounts – 24 percent
• Job candidate had a large amount of followers or subscribers – 14 percent

“It’s important for job seekers to remember that much of what they post to the Internet – and in some cases what others post about them – can be found by potential employers, and that can affect their chances of getting hired down the road,” said Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources at CareerBuilder. “Job seekers need to stay vigilant, and pay attention to privacy updates from all of their social networking accounts so they know what information is out there for others to see. Take control of your web presence by limiting who can post to your profile and monitoring posts you’ve been tagged in.”

Watch What You Post
Employers shared the strangest things they’ve discovered on job candidates’ or current employees’ social media profiles, including:

• Candidate’s profile included links to an escort service
• Candidate posted a photo of a warrant for his arrest
• Candidate posted an exercise video for grandmothers
• Candidate had sued his wife for shooting him in the head
• Candidate featured a pig as his closest friend
• Candidate posted his dental exam results
• Candidate bragged about driving drunk and not getting caught on several occasions
• Candidate was actively involved in a demonic cult
• Candidate posted Sasquatch pictures he had taken

Privacy
Many workers and job seekers are taking measures to protect their privacy and avoid over-sharing with potential employers. Nearly half (47 percent) of workers only share posts with friends and family, 41 percent have their profile set to private, and 18 percent keep separate professional and personal profiles. Twenty-eight percent of workers say they don’t use social media.

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“New IPOs continue to fuel a strong pipeline this quarter as capital is readily available,” said Jackie Kelley, EY Global IPO Leader.  ”PE and VC’s are driving IPOs as they seize the opportunity to realize value for investors, confidence continues to build as the VIX® is now at the lowest level since the start of 2007, and with M&A hot again, companies have more options to exit. Dual tracking has become popular again.”

The Q2 Review:

It was another hot quarter for healthcare and technology-with both rising to the top as the most active industries due to favorable market conditions for VC/PE exits. In the first half of 2014, almost three out of four healthcare and technology IPOs were either PE-or VC backed- that is 45 out of 63 healthcare IPOs and 24 out of 32 technology IPOs. Rounding out the top five sectors are the oil & gas, financial services and retail industries. In terms of proceeds, technology and oil & gas raised the most capital among all industries.

Drivers:
Technology companies over the last five years have been streamlining operations, developing cash positive business models and throwing off cash. Debt markets have been friendly and innovation around the cloud and mobile is driving a lot of activity. The healthcare and life sciences industries have exploded recently with companies looking to become more specialized narrowing their areas of focus-a trend expected to continue for the foreseeable future. In financial services, smaller regional financial institutions and insurance companies found opportunities to raise capital. Oil and gas IPOs continue to be driven by limited partnerships.

A further breakdown of the 87 IPOs currently in the pipeline by sector shows that:

• 34 are in Health Care, raising $1.9 billion
• 18 are in Financial Services, raising $0.7 billion
• 8 are in Technology, raising $0.8 billion
• 4 are in Oil & Gas, raising $2.1 billion
• 4 are in Professional Services, raising $1.1 billion
• 4 are in Utilities, raising $1.3 billion

Cross-border is back:
US exchanges continue to be the most attractive in the world and have dominated the market with 91 IPOs and$23.1b in proceeds. The proceeds were twice more than the second busiest exchange of London. Valuation was less favorable compared to the first quarter as investors exhibited signs of caution on whether or not the uptrend in the equity markets is sustainable. Only three US domiciled companies listed outside of the US for the first half of 2014 including: Margaritaville in Jamaica; Acucela Inc. in Japan, and e-TeleQuote in the UK.

“This quarter saw a comeback of cross border listings reaching their highest level since 2007,” continued Kelley. “Ten Greater Chinese firms listed on US exchanges, raising more than $3.5b compared to only one in the first quarter.  Eight of the 11, or 73%, of companies listing on US exchanges are technology or internet-based companies.”

Just recently, the China Securities Regulatory Commission announced it would limit IPOs in China to around 100 in the second half of the year, which could encourage even more of the 700 Chinese firms in the IPO pipeline to consider a cross border listing.

Other countries listing on US exchanges in 1H 2014 include:
UK 5 deals US$2.7b
Israel 3 deals US$0.2b
Canada 3 deals US$0.4b

VC and PE-Backed IPOs
PE and VC account for 60% of US IPOs with 54 deals and $18.3 billion in proceeds. The two top PE-backed IPOs were Ally Financial and IMS Healthcare. VC-backed IPO volume dropped in the second quarter compared to Q1. However, proceeds of $4.8b surpassed both Q1 and the second quarter of 2013.

Forty-one of the IPOs in today’s 87-company pipeline are PE/VC-backed, which is more typical of historical trends. The market will continue to see PE/VC exits in the foreseeable future.

Year-over-year pipeline comparison chart:

*Q2 2014 figures are as of June 17, 2014. Number of IPOs that went public is projection for the quarter

“We’re expecting the IPO market to remain hot as new IPOs continue to fuel the pipeline,” concluded Kelley. “As the Fed has focused on keeping rates low and the tapering strategy will remain unchanged, barring any impact from geo-political shock, we expect this to be a banner year reaching levels we have not seen since 2004.”

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