OC businesses are putting AI to work, according to Cal State Fullerton economists led by Anil Puri.<\/p>\n
\u201cA majority of businesses are saying AI is increasing their productivity,\u201d Puri told the Business Journal on July 6.<\/p>\n
The economists\u2019 latest quarterly survey said 19% of respondents reported productivity boosts of 20% or more in their firms, while others reported smaller increases.<\/p>\n
AI may also be increasing businesses profitability, the results showed.<\/p>\n
While AI may be increasing productivity, more than 70% of those surveyed reported that AI had not significantly affected their workforces by causing layoffs.<\/p>\n
OC Optimism Keeps Rising<\/p>\n
The survey, released July 1, said OC business leaders have grown more optimistic about the future of the economy.<\/p>\n
The CSUF Orange County Business Expectations Index, or OCBX, rose to 72% for the just-started quarter, up from nearly 69% in the second quarter. This marks the third consecutive quarterly increase in the index this year. A score above 50% indicates expectations for future economic growth in Orange County.<\/p>\n
Before last week\u2019s renewed escalation in the Middle East, inflation had \u201cbecome the main concern\u201d among respondents, said Puri, the director of the Woods Center for Economic Analysis and Forecasting.<\/p>\n
The Woods Center produced the index and survey in partnership with the Orange County Business Council.<\/p>\n
Puri said President Donald Trump\u2019s trade tariffs \u201chave stabilized the situation but the after-effect is not completely done. Businesses are still passing on those costs to households.\u201d
U.S. inflation hit 4.2% in May, the highest in three years, as consumers chafed against soaring gasoline and grocery prices.<\/p>\n
Government Deficit Concern<\/p>\n
Government deficits were the second-largest concern at the start of the current quarter.<\/p>\n
Survey results for the third quarter of 2026 show that 17% of Orange County firms plan to increase their workforce, a slight decline from 20% in the previous quarter.<\/p>\n
The figures suggest that companies are approaching hiring with greater caution. Fewer firms plan to expand their labor force, while more expect to reduce headcount compared with last quarter.<\/p>\n
Orange County\u2019s unemployment rate fell to 3.5% in May from a revised 3.7% in April, while the U.S. rate was 4.1%.<\/p>\n
Puri said that 325 people received the survey e-mail and 52 responded, or just over 16%.<\/p>\n
The survey was conducted between June 16 to June 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OC businesses are putting AI to work, according to Cal State Fullerton economists led by Anil Puri. \u201cA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-396709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396709","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=396709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}