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Economy may be rebounding

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

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(05/13/09)-- (WJRT) -- (05/13/09)--After months of bad economic news, could there be a glimmer of hope that we are coming out of a recession?

One local economist who thinks so. And there is good news and there is bad news.

The good news, according to Dr. Mark Perry, an economics professor at the University of Michigan-Flint says the economy has bottomed out and the worst -- around March and April -- is now behind us.

He says the next step now is recovery and growth.

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And while the Economic Cycle Research Institute says it's possible we could see some recovery by the end of the summer, he says it may take until 2011 for economists to officially declare the recession over.

Now, the bad news: While the world may slowly be coming out of its global recession, Michigan could still struggle for some time.

Perry says this is because Michigan's economy has had to shrink and completely restructure itself due to the shifts from the manufacturing and the auto industry.

In fact, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy even estimates the state could see unemployment reach as much as 20 percent by the end of the year.

But Perry says we've been here before.

"To give people some hope, we did come out of the '80s when the unemployment rate was 17 percent in Michigan," Perry said.

"It could take years -- a decade -- but hopefully the Michigan economy will stabilize and we will come back and be healthy again."

After Michigan's economy shrinks, Perry says displaced workers may just have to go where the jobs are if they don't come back here.