{"id":125100,"date":"2026-01-08T12:36:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T12:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/125100\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T12:36:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T12:36:16","slug":"people-are-feeling-optimistic-ceo-says-of-2026s-economic-outlook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/125100\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;People are feeling optimistic,&#8217; CEO says of 2026&#8217;s economic outlook"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What&#8217;s the economic forecast for 2026? <\/p>\n<p><p>Alfred Ortiz, CEO of The Job Creators Network, joined The National News Desk to discuss what&#8217;s to come. (TNND)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Alfred Ortiz, CEO of the Job Creators Network, joined The National News Desk to discuss what&#8217;s to come. <\/p>\n<p>He said 2025 ended on a high note.  <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I know that consumers were actually out there shopping away. The great almost 4% increase in spending versus last year. So, those doldrums and those concerns that people are saying that it was going to be a horrible holiday season that just didn&#8217;t materialize. I think people are feeling optimistic,&#8221; Ortiz said. <\/p>\n<p>Despite unemployment numbers hitting its highest since November, Ortiz said the Trump administration is focused on shifting the focus to the private sector. <\/p>\n<p>A new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday said that Americans <a href=\"https:\/\/thenationaldesk.com\/news\/americas-news-now\/jolts-adp-give-fresh-labor-market-snapshots-ahead-of-friday-jobs-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">are in a low-hire, low-fire labor market. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Trump administration was really focus on is shifting our economy from really a government-funded economy, where jobs are basically coming from the government sector and really now a private sector economy,&#8221; Ortiz said. <\/p>\n<p>He added that almost 300,00 government jobs were lost. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The government, let&#8217;s face it, was just too fat, too bureaucratic. And I think that was a meaningful move that the Trump administration did. And now we&#8217;re much more in a healthy environment of private sector job growth,&#8221; Ortiz said. <\/p>\n<p>When it comes to interest rates, Ortiz said he doesn&#8217;t think the U.S. will see another drop in interest rates before Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell leaves the job. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Quite frankly, the American small business owner and consumer really need that, those lower interest rates,&#8221; Ortiz said. <\/p>\n<p>Despite the optimism going into 2026, Ortiz said businesses are having problems with access and cost of credit. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s the economic forecast for 2026? Alfred Ortiz, CEO of The Job Creators Network, joined The National News&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":{"0":"post-125100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bakersfield","8":"tag-bakersfield","9":"tag-bakersfield-headlines","10":"tag-bakersfield-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}