Indicators: Where is the economy headed? Some hopeful signs include: Unemployment declining (slowly)...Despite its volatility, the stock market continues an upward trend...corporate profits are at record levels....Toll Brothers, the nationwide high-end home builder, recently posted its second consecutive quarterly profit....Commercial construction remains in the doldrums, though the Boston Business Journal (BBJ) reports that a number of large scale residential projects are likely to break ground in the next six months.

Rental: Big local projects include 27-story towers in Chinatown and the Back Bay, a 21-story building in Southie, and another tower in the Fort Point Channel area. Most of the projects focus on rental housing, where demand has been growing. "I'm not sure anyone wants to be first, but everyone wants to be close to first," said a representative of Suffolk Construction, which will be involved in some of the upcoming projects.

A Mixed Bag: Across the country, housing sales in November declined 28% compared to a year ago, in large part because of end of tax incentives. And in recent weeks mortgage rates have been rising again--despite efforts by the Federal Reserve to keep rates low. Nonetheless, compared to the previous month, home sales were up--though prices were slightly lower.

Census: It's not good news for Massachusetts that in 2012 we will lose one seat in Congress, and will have one less vote in the Electoral College. Even though our population continued to grow (slightly), Massachusetts did not keep pace with states like Nevada, Texas and Florida where population growth was much stronger. A century ago Massachusetts had 16 of the 435 seats in the US Congress. Soon we will have only 9.

Interesting: Census results tell us some interesting things about Massachusetts. For instance, our state leads the nation in the percentage of births to women 35 and older. In 2008, nearly 30% of babies in Massachusetts were born to women 35 and older...Carlisle has the highest percentage of college graduates of any town in the state: 87% of people over 25 are college graduates. Sherborn, Weston, Wellesley, Dover and Acton are close behind. Flat: Economists report that middle class Americans have not been making much progress in recent decades. Robert Reich, the former Secretary of Labor, says that the median male worker earns less today, adjusted for inflation, than he did 30 years ago. In the late 1970s, the richest 1 percent of American families took in about 9 percent of the nation's total income; by 2007, the top 1 percent took in 23.5 percent of total income.

Unions: The National Labor Relations Board this month said that it would require companies to post notices on their bulletin boards Ð and perhaps send out e-mailÐ to inform employees of their right to unionize under federal law.

Retirement: According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 29% of current retirees saved nothing for retirement. Another third saved only $50,000. Of course, most get Social Security, and some have pensions. But pensions are increasingly regarded by many financial professionals as risky, since they base their "guaranteed benefits" on performance of the stock market. The BBJ reports that for retirement benefits, the US now ranks tenth in the world, several slots below Chile.

Demographic Changes: The New York Times reports that in one decade, most Americans under 18 will come from the ranks of today's minorities. By about 2040, the true "minority" population in America will be non-Hispanic whites.

Congratulations! To Tom Theroux, Executive Director of the PHCC of Massachusetts, who has been named President of the Association Executive Council of the National PHCC. Also, New England Progress Magazine, the state PHCC magazine that Tom publishes, has been named "2010 Best Magazine" by the National PHCC. The PHCC of Mass. also won the 2010 Chapter Leadership Award as well as awards for Best Membership Directory and Best Continuing Education Publication.

Goodbye, Checks! The British government has passed a law that will outlaw the use of checks by 2018. Everyone in England will be expected to use electronic transfers, including on-line bill-pay, and ATM cards. (BBC News). In the US, the trend towards using debit cards is accelerating rapidly. According to the Wall Street Journal, most business payments are now done electronically - no checks involved.

Parsons-Brinkerhoff: The firm that had a big role in the Big Dig was acquired last year by Balfour Beatty, a giant construction firm in London. They are doing well: $7.2 billion in revenues in just the first six months of 2010. They expect to do even better in the future, since infrastructure spending throughout the world is expected to grow significantly.

China: Nothing in China gets built without government money. During the 2008 economic meltdown, China realized it faced a problem, and decided to invest heavily in infrastructure. A construction stimulus program many times larger than the American stimulus program was put in place.

The Results: By 2012, China will have over 8,000 miles of high-speed rail--trains that go 302 miles per hour. In the US we have no trains that approach the speeds of those in China or Europe.

The US: Meanwhile, the New York Times (NYT) reports that in the US, public spending on construction has been declining, and our infrastructure is rapidly aging. (Take a look at the MBTA tunnels sometime.) The Democrats wanted to increase spending for public construction but Republicans in the Senate refused....But in New York City, public school construction is now the second largest part of the construction economy, after private commercial work.

Harvard: Remember that big plan Harvard had for a huge new science center complex in Allston? When the market tanked, Harvard mothballed the project. There is talk that next year Harvard will announce a scaled-back project. They may be looking for investment partners.

Nuclear: 61 nuclear plants are now under construction world-wide, according to the Engineering News-Record (ENR). Six Plants are under contract in the US, but only one, in Georgia, is now under construction. China is now constructing 25 nuclear plants.

Health Insurance: Beginning next year, the Federal government will require health insurance companies to disclose and justify any rate increases of 10% or more. This policy is intended to protect consumers, and is part of the new health care law.

Not On The Move: The NYT reports that Americans are moving much less frequently than they used to. Fewer than 12% of Americans moved in 2007, compared to 20% in the 1950s and '60s. 37% of Americans have never moved away from their home town....81% of New Yorkers were born in the state....compared to Nevada, where only 14% of the people were actually born there. The severe recession has further reduced the likelihood that people will move.

Gates Foundation: The foundation of Bill and Melinda Gates (Microsoft) last year gave away $3 billion. A key initiative: setting up toilets in undeveloped countries. Poor sanitation contributes to the deaths of 1.5 million children each year.

Water: This past year National Geographic did a special issue on water, and the ways in which it is becoming an increasingly valuable resource. Some interesting facts: -

• One out of eight people on earth lack access to clean water. -
• The longest water tunnel in the world runs by gravity 85 miles from upstate NY into New York City. Unfortunately, it leaks 35 million gallons a day. -
• That tunnel is being replaced by a new one. At this very moment sandhogs (tunnel workers) are hundreds of feet under Manhattan, digging out part of the new tunnel. -
• Nearly 70% of the world's fresh water is locked in ice. But that ice is melting at an unusually quick rate. -
• Two-thirds of the world's water is used to grow food. -
• The weight of China's Three Gorges Reservoir will tilt the earth's axis nearly an inch. -
• The population of the earth is increasing by 83 million people each year. Water needs will continue to grow--and struggles over the control of water could lead to some political problems.

Mark Your Calendar: The Second Annual World Plumbing Day will be March 11, 2011. The event is sponsored by the World Plumbing Council, and is intended to emphasize - like the Gates Foundation - the importance of clean water and sanitation.