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Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Wednesday that owners of Toyotas affected by the recall should bring their cars to a dealer.

"My advice is if you have one of these vehicles, if you have a doubt, take it to Toyota today," LaHood told reporters after a hearing on Capitol Hill.

Earlier, LaHood had told a House committee that Toyota owners should "stop driving" and bring affected cars back to the company. He later referred to that as a "misstatement."

The Transportation agency also released a statement advising owners "to contact their local dealerships to arrange for fixes as soon as possible."

"We appreciate Secretary LaHood’s clarification of his remarks today about Toyota’s recall for sticking accelerator pedals," Toyota said in a statement. "We want to make sure our customers understand that this situation is rare and generally does not occur suddenly."

The automaker said if Toyota owners notice a problem, they should contact their dealerships immediately. But if a car is not experiencing pedal issues, Toyota said it is confident the vehicle is safe to drive.

Toyota officials announced on Monday they had found a solution that involved reinforcing the pedal assembly with a part that is being rushed to dealerships.

The problem, however, is that drivers are not likely to get a quick fix. Toyota told dealers in a letter on Tuesday that "parts and technical instructions will begin arriving this week for you to begin initiating repairs."

The confusion has worried Toyota owners like Maria Ciresi, 75, of Smithtown, N.Y.

"I’m deadly afraid to use it," said Ciresi, referring to the new car she bought in November that has only 300 miles on it.

She said she contacted two of her local Toyota dealerships, but was told that they "don’t know when" they would be able to fix her car.

"You have to be notified first by mail," she said.

Ciresi said she contacted Toyota directly, and was told to "drive the car, and if anything happens, put it in neutral."

Meanwhile, Ciresi said she’s paying $190 a month for insurance and $263 a month on car payments for a vehicle she doesn’t dare use.

LaHood also acknowledged that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating Toyotas not just for problems with gas pedals, but for problems with the electrical systems, as well.

"We will also be investigating the electronic components that are in these cars and if they’re not safe, we’ll have Toyota take a look at that," LaHood said.

He said that Toyota has been cooperative in the investigations.

Toyota has recalled millions of vehicles in recent weeks due to problems with sticking gas pedals that cause the vehicles to accelerate out of control and later halted the sale of the eight vehicles involved in the recall.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the model-make of a car. 

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The running numbers on the worst job crisis since the Great Depression have become the new national boxscore.

Even those with cursory interest in the economy are aware the national unemployment rate stood near or past 10 percent nationally for most of 2009.

Still others can reel off the current numbers for Missouri (9.6 percent) and Illinois (11 percent) with the authority of a seasoned economist.

Now, for the first time, policy-makers have a tool to regularly measure the depth of that economic pain at the state and regional level — a quarterly snapshot assessing underemployment and other comprehensive unemployment data on a state-by-state basis.

Since 1994, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has packaged the inclusive national jobs data into its monthly unemployment report. But on a state and local level, such statistics were available only once a year.

A bureau official said the new schedule, two years in development, fills a recession-ravaged public’s need for more information about the state of the economy and job market. And the picture isn’t very pretty.

When the bureau adds workers overqualified for their current positions (underemployed), employees involuntarily subjected to reduced hours and individuals no longer looking for a job to the equation, the national barometer for jobs misery soars to 17 percent.

"It’s not so interesting when the economy is humming along," said Tom Krolik, an analyst with the agency’s local area unemployment statistics division.

The new data provide a steady and reliable estimate of just how deeply the recession has cut into two states in which 773,000

(Illinois) and 137,500 (Missouri) displaced workers are currently drawing unemployment:

— More than 400,000 underemployed in Illinois and nearly 200,000 working below grade level in Missouri.

— Upwards of 350,000 now employed part time involuntarily in Illinois and an additional 153,000 struggling in part-time positions in Missouri.

— At least 30,000 "discouraged workers" (people who have stopped looking for jobs) in Illinois and an additional 10,000 in Missouri.

The state numbers are culled from the same surveys and databases the bureau uses to compile its monthly unemployment statistics.

"The thing that is so discouraging is that we’re not seeing much improvement," said Bonny Filandrinos, president of Staffing Solutions in Clayton, which provides temporary workers to health facilities and other area companies.

Filandrinos says she’s still waiting to see a bounce-back in demand for even temporary or part-time labor. "We’re still in trouble," she said.

Six Flags St. Louis got a glimpse of where the economy still stands earlier this month when 916 temporary 2009 employees attended a party to welcome back temporary workers returning for another season.

By the time Six Flags ends its 2010 recruitment drive — a process that begins with a Feb. 6 job fair — human resources director Colleen Welch estimates about half of the park’s employees will be returnees.

On average, she said, Six Flags sees about 40 percent of its workers return the following season.

Unlike days when the park’s employees swelled in the summer with high school and college students, many of the returnees are older, experienced workers driven to seasonal employment by a bum economy.

Bob Graf, 64, managed to carve out a decent living since abandoning the teaching profession 30 years ago for a second career as a freight broker.

As the middleman that small and mid-sized manufacturers retain to negotiate shipping contracts with trucking firms, Graf considers himself somewhat of an "amateur" economist.

When production slowed and orders started to drop in 2007, Graf figured the economy was going down the tubes.

He figured right.

Last year, the recession hit Graf where it hurts.

With his commissions in the tank, Graf took a second job as a seasonal security guard at Six Flags to help make ends meet. Seeing little improvement in the shipping business, he will be back this summer, supplementing the diminished income from his year-round position.

"I still make money, but it’s not what it was," said Graf, of south St. Louis County.

Still, there are signs of improvement that should eventually show up in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ expanded database.

Jon Lauer, president of Professional Irrigation Systems in Wentzville, is planning to fill four to six positions lost to layoffs last year.

With commercial and residential construction still in decline, Lauer has changed the focus of his 10-year-old company to the servicing of existing irrigation systems as well as installing some at municipal athletic facilities. The workload, he said, is a far cry from the pre-recession days when 50- to 60-hour weeks were common.

For the past year and into the foreseeable future, he stressed, overtime is out of the question.

"We’re still in the hanging-in-there stage," he said.

As is Rob Huddleston, 41, of Florissant, who has been out of work since losing his welding job in August.

After dipping his toe in a market that seeks to pay experienced welders about two-thirds of what he earned last year, Huddleston decided to accept $5,000 in Workforce Investment Act funding to improve his skills in a retraining program.

The tight job market, he said, "does get discouraging sometimes."

But not so much that Huddleston will show up in the bureau’s category of workers who have put the brakes on the job search.

"I don’t look at giving up as an option," he said. "I know people get discouraged, but if you quit there is nowhere to go but further down."

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The Federal Reserve said the U.S. economy continues to show signs of modest improvement but signaled it will stay the course and keep interest rates low to help spur a recovery.

As expected, the central bank left its key interest rate, the federal funds rate, near 0%, the level it has been at since December 2008. That rate is used as a benchmark for a broad range of business and consumer loans.

In a statement released at the end of its two-day meeting, the Fed pointed to improvement in business spending, but said that the "recovery is likely to be moderate for a time."

While that may not sound like a ringing endorsement of economic growth, it was significantly better than what the Fed had been saying in its statements since last April — "Economic activity is likely to remain weak for a time."

Still, the Fed repeated its earlier forecast that conditions are "likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period."

But one member, Kansas City Fed President Thomas Hoenig, voted against the Fed’s latest action. According to the statement, Hoenig thought that economic conditions had changed enough so that the continued expectation of low rates was "no longer warranted." It was the first dissenting vote among Fed policymakers since January 2009.

The Fed said it will stick with plans to let some of its efforts of the past two years expire in the coming months. But it provided no new details of how or when it plans to start pulling back on nearly $2 trillion it has pumped into the economy over the last two years through the purchases of mortgages, long-term Treasurys and the debt of mortgage finance firms Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) and Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500).

Some critics of the Fed have worried that the central bank is behind the curve in withdrawing that stimulus, which could feed inflation down the road. But the Fed repeated its earlier view that it believes inflation "is likely to be subdued for some time."

Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist at Key Private Bank, said Hoenig’s dissent is probably a good thing since it may assure markets that the Fed is not getting too far behind the curve in keeping prices in check.

Keith Hembre, chief economist at First American Funds, said if the Fed policymakers had followed Hoenig’s lead and dropped the language on keeping rates exceptionally low, it would have roiled financial markets not yet ready for the Fed to start raising rates.

"Hoeing is one of the more hawkish guys on inflation," Hembre said. "But I think the view [of other Fed policymakers] on inflation is on the mark."

Hembre added that due to the weakness in the job market, he thinks it will be years before there is a big enough increase in wages that could help drive the prices of goods and services higher.

Along those lines, the central bank did highlight some key economic weaknesses that remain, including tight credit, continued declines in real estate investment and employers still being reluctant to hire new staff.

McCain said that given the uneven signs of improvement in the housing market so far, it was not realistic to expect the Fed to lay out plans to start selling the $1.25 trillion in mortgages it expects to own by the end of March. Some have even argued the Fed should raise that limit in order to buy more mortgages.

"There is concern about what happens with the housing market when there is no longer the support of the Fed making these purchases," McCain said. He believes the Fed has decided its best course on mortgages is to "steer the middle course," and go ahead with the purchases it has committed to and no further.

The Fed’s latest meeting comes two days before the Commerce Department is expected to report the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 4.6% in the fourth quarter. That would be its strongest pace in four years.

The meeting also comes as the Senate prepares for a key vote Thursday that could clear the way towards confirming Fed chairman Ben Bernanke for another four-year term as head of the central bank. His term is set to expire Sunday, and there has been growing opposition from both ends of the political spectrum to his reappointment. 

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Brazilian inflation will quicken above policy makers’ target this year, according to economists surveyed by the central bank.

Consumer prices, as measured by the benchmark IPCA index, will rise 4.6 percent this year, up from a week-earlier forecast of 4.5 percent, according to the median forecast in a Jan. 22 central bank survey published today. The bank targets inflation of 4.5 percent plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Traders expect the central bank to raise interest rates to at least 9 percent, up from a record low 8.75 percent, as early as March to keep inflation in check, according to Bloomberg estimates based on interest rate futures contracts. The benchmark lending rate will be pushed up to 11.25 percent by year-end, according to the central bank survey.

“March would be a good month to start raising rates and to send out a clear message — the central bank is watching inflation and is ready to increase rates as needed,” Carlos Eduardo de Freitas, a former central bank director, said in an interview from Rio de Janeiro guaranteed payday loans.

The annual inflation rate is likely to remain between 4 percent and 4.5 percent if policy makers start acting in March, said Freitas, who is a partner at OF Consultoria Economica, an economic research company in Brasilia.

“Should they wait until the last quarter of the year, consumer prices could rise more than 5 percent this year,” he said.

Economists in the bank’s weekly survey forecast that Latin America’s biggest economy will expand 5.3 percent this year, after contracting 0.26 percent in 2009.

The real gained 0.2 percent to 1.8210 per U.S. dollar at 11:18 a.m. New York time from 1.8247 on Jan. 22.

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Editor’s note: This story is part of a special supplement to the Jan. 22 print edition of the Phoenix Business Journal. For more on the print edition: jbertolino@bizjournals.com.

The battle over noise concerns if the new F-35 fighter training mission comes to Luke Air Force Base has placed Glendale and El Mirage in a public relations and political skirmish.

El Mirage worries the F-35 fighter is louder than the F-16 jets that currently fly into and out of Luke. The West Valley suburb wants noise tests done to see how much louder the F-35 might be, and it could sue the U.S. Defense Department over the matter.

“You can ask questions about noise and still support the base. The jet may be noisier, and if it comes, everyone is going to have to deal with it,” said Stacy Pearson, a spokeswoman for El Mirage.

Glendale, where the base is located, has taken the lead in trying to attract the new F-35 fighter to Luke, which is the U.S. Air Force’s main training base for F-16 pilots. The F-35 is replacing the F-16 in the U.S. military arsenal, and Luke is on the short list for F-35 training along with bases in Florida, New Mexico, Idaho and Tucson.

Glendale spokesman Jerry McCoy said community support for Luke could help draw F-35 operations to the base.

“They’re going to base their decisions on what’s best for the national defense. But they also want to be in a community that’s supportive of them,” said McCoy.

Glendale has been garnering political, business and community support for Luke and the F-35. The main concern is that if the Pentagon picks another base for F-35 training, Luke’s mission could end and base could be closed.

The West Valley suburbs are no strangers to conflict. Glendale prevailed in recent court battles with El Mirage regarding decades-old strip annexations. El Mirage officials have hinted that if Glendale turns over some of that land, it could help ease El Mirage’s worries about Luke noise fast cash advance.

Arizona Sen. John McCain has asked the Department of Defense to have an F-35 fly over the region in an effort to determine how much noise will be generated by the new plane if it ends up being based at Luke.

Pearson and McCoy are not strangers, either. Pearson worked as a spokeswoman for the city of Glendale with McCoy before leaving for a post at Rose & Allyn Public Relations. Last year, El Mirage hired Rose & Allyn, headed by Jason Rose, to handle its PR on the F-35 and Luke. Policy Development Group previously handled PR for El Mirage.

Pearson said Glendale’s reaction to El Mirage’s noise concerns is disappointing.

“It’s been juvenile,” she said. “The two cities have not been the friendliest of neighbors. It is time to bury the hatchet and discuss noise.”

In its quest, El Mirage has drawn comparisons to Valparaiso, Fla., which filed a federal lawsuit regarding F-35 noise at Eglin Air Force Base, near Pensacola. Since Eglin held some F-35 test flights, the Florida town has complained about what it believes is an increase in noise compared with the F-16.

McCoy said the noise concerns in Florida may not mirror those at Luke because of the number of and the differences in how flights take off and land at the two bases. Glendale officials point out that El Mirage does not get all of Luke’s flight noise: Some flights follow a path over Goodyear, south of the base, for takeoff and landing. El Mirage is north of Luke.

McCoy said the F-35 issue is not about a rivalry between the two cities.

“We don’t look at it as Glendale-El Mirage,” McCoy said. “This is really a statewide issue.”

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China property sales jumped 75.5 percent to 4.4 trillion yuan ($644 billion) last year, led by the eastern cities of Zhejiang and Shanghai, as record new loans boosted buying.

The sales data follows last week’s announcement that December property prices rose 7.8 percent, the fastest pace in 18 months, adding urgency to government efforts to rein in speculation. China this month reimposed a sales tax on homes sold within five years of their purchase while the country’s cabinet on Jan. 10 urged strict application of a 40 percent down-payment requirement for second homes. The measures are likely to weigh on first-quarter sales, economist Lu Ting said.

‘We will see very bad transaction numbers, even though prices may not fall that much as the supply of new homes is still low,” Lu, a Hong Kong-based economist at Bank of America- Merrill Lynch, said by phone today. Today’s data more accurately reflect last year’s gain in asset values, he said

By floor area, sales rose 42 percent from 2008 to 937 million square meters (10 billion square feet), the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement on its Web site today. That compares with a 53 percent gain between January and November, when sales value advanced 86.8 percent. December’s declining sales growth reflects the seasonally slow winter period, Lu said.

The December figure for property prices probably understated the size of the increase, the economist said. “In reality, the inflation in asset prices may be between 20 percent and 30 percent, and that is way too high for the policy- makers,” Lu said.

Shanghai Gain

Zhejiang topped the increase in sales value, with a 130 percent gain, the statistics bureau said today. In Shanghai, the gain was 126 percent.

Investment in property development in 2009 rose 16.1 percent to 3.62 trillion yuan, the statistics bureau said. That was less than the 17.8 percent gain in the first 11 months. Chinese banks extended a record 9.59 trillion yuan of new loans last year.

To counter property speculation, China is tightening lending. Chinese banks from Jan. 18 raised the share of deposits they must set aside as reserves, as the government seeks to rein in liquidity from record lending without stalling a recovery. China is targeting 8 percent growth this year, Industry Minister Li Yizhong said Dec. 21.

Developers Sales Surge

Shanghai Shimao Co., the local unit of billionaire Xu Rongmao’s developer Shimao Holdings Holdings Ltd., said today that 2009 profit may quadruple, partly due to higher sales from additional commercial property projects.

Earlier this month, some of China’s biggest developers said 2009 sales increased significantly.

China Overseas Land & Investment Ltd., owned by the country’s construction ministry, said property sales rose 80 percent to HK$47.8 billion. Evergrande Real Estate Group Ltd., China’s third-biggest developer by market value, said Jan. 5 that contracted sales jumped fivefold to 30.3 billion yuan.

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Mark Tade, manager of employee relations for U.S. Steel’s Granite City Works, was elected as this year’s president of the Leadership Council Southwestern Illinois, a key economic development organization in the Metro East area.

Members also chose four other council officers for one-year terms:

— Council chairman, Vaughn Vandegrift, chancellor of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

— Council vice president, Gerry Schuetzenhofer, president of Coldwell Banker Brown Realtors
— Secretary, Richard Sauget Sr short term personal loan., president of East County Enterprises

— Treasurer, Dale Stewart, executive secretary/treasurer of the Southwestern Illinois Building and Construction Trades Council

The Leadership Council was organized to attract and retain jobs and stimulate capital investment in the Metro East area.

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The amount of money that Canadians are stashing away for retirement has been declining for a decade, and the trend is likely to continue through 2020 as the baby boomers move into their golden years, according to a study by the Royal Bank of Canada.

Contributions to registered retirement savings plans, or RRSPs, grew steadily from the late 1960s to the late 1990s.

Since 1997, there has been a "decidedly downward trend" in the RRSP savings rate, the report says.

"This downward trend in itself doesn’t mean there’s a problem," if the level of savings is still adequate for Canadians’ retirement, RBC assistant chief economist Paul Ferley said in an interview.

"The big question is determining how much savings is needed to properly fund the population as they move into their retirement years. At the moment the academic community is working through that analysis. There doesn’t seem to be a consensus on that."

A falloff in savings would have a negative impact on the overall economy because it would result in fewer funds available for business investment.

Government officials said in December they will study and consult the public on a short-list of proposals for how to boost retirement savings.

The list includes everything from a continued reliance on voluntary savings plans and higher contributions to the Canada Pension Plan to supplementary pension plans and tax reform.

A report is expected by May.

Financial planning experts, academics and labour groups have been calling for pension reform, particularly as the massive baby boom population, those born in the two decades following World War II, moves into the retirement years.

Stock market volatility and turmoil in the economy over the past two years have exposed weaknesses in the current system. Fewer than one in four Canadians now holds a private company pension plan.

The decline in RRSP contributions can largely be pinned on changing demographics, according to the RBC paper.

Different age groups tend to save differently for retirement, the study noted, with those in their mid-30s and 40s traditionally saving the most and those ages 34 and under and ages 55 and older saving less.

"Because household RRSP contributions have historically tended to fall after age 55, it is possible that we could actually see a decline in total real RRSP contributions over the next decade," the study said.

The run-up in RRSP contributions as a share of income through the 1980s and early 1990s appears to have been mainly due to the boomers entering their peak saving years, along with rising income growth and comparatively strong real stock market gains, the study found.

Periodic changes in government policy, such as increases to contribution limits and scrapping limits on carry-forward room, also spurred savings.

Retirement savings declines have been driven by falling stock markets and economic slowdown, as well as demographic changes.

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The Boeing Co. announced Thursday that it has realigned its St. Louis-based Integrated Defense Systems unit and will operate under a new name.

The newly renamed Boeing Defense, Space & Security unit reflects part of the company’s "continuing effort to compete in a rapidly evolving global defense and security marketplace," company officials said in a news release.

"Boeing anticipated flattening defense budgets and shifting customer priorities for the past few years and has been taking aggressive steps to position the company for profitable growth in a challenging economy," said Dennis Muilenburg, president and CEO of the Defense, Space & Security unit fast payday loans.

It will retain its operating units — Boeing Military Aircraft, Network and Space Systems, and Global Services and Support. Boeing Defense, Space & Security will consolidate some divisions and make several leadership changes, Muilenburg said.

Boeing’s Defense, Space & Security unit is the second-largest employer in the St. Louis region with about 15,000 workers.

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Cincinnati–Swiffer kitties? Just attach little dusting pads to your feline’s paws, so they can help keep your floors clean while making their rounds. A bit far-fetched? Executives at consumer-products king Procter & Gamble Co. thought so, too, and sent the idea to the discard pile.

P&G also rejected pitches from outside inventors for a belly-button lint brush, a Knees and Toes body wash to complement Head and Shoulders shampoo, and a "man handle" to keep marital harmony in the bathroom by making it easier to raise and lower the toilet seat.

But there are success stories, too. The original Swiffer duster was developed by a Japanese company that P&G teamed up with to take it global. That’s why P&G keeps the door open to proposals.

The once-insular company is now considered a leader among the companies in many industries that are listening to outsiders they once might have shunned, including other businesses. "We don’t care where good ideas come from, as long as they come to us," said Jeff Weedman, a vice-president who helps lead P&G’s effort to solicit ideas online or from scouting by P&G employees around the globe.

"We’re not going to use everything that shows up, but we want to be the preferred partner."

Others noted for "open innovation" include IBM Corp., which runs online "innovation jams," and Eli Lilly & Co., which in 2001 created an InnoCentive branch to draw scientific help from around the globe.

Jeff DeGraff, a professor who focuses on managing innovation and creativity at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, said P&G has helped popularize the approach.

"P&G was the poster child for this movement, showing large companies with growth challenges that this is not just for Silicon Valley or Ann Arbor (Mich business