UCF releases new forecast

This year will mark the start of a slow economic recovery for Florida, with unemployment remaining high for several year, according to a report released today by economists at the University of Central Florida, led by director Dr. Sean Snaith.

The report makes predictions about the state's economic future in the next three years. Some specific predictions made in the report include:

• Unemployment will remain above 10% until the second quarter of 2012, and then fall to 7.9% by the end of 2013.
• Professional and business services, manufacturing, and education and health services will be the fastest growing business sectors.
• Both 2010 and 2011 will feature essentially zero population growth.
• Housing starts will slowly increase, reaching 2001 levels in 2013, with 167,400 housing starts expected.

A PDF version of the entire 94-page forecast is available at the Institute for Economic Competitiveness' website (http://www.iec.ucf.edu/).