Recession for another year, rising unemployment and $4.10-a-gallon gasoline, too? You might say this is getting to be difficult.
The questions now, at the mid-point of 2008, are: How long will these troubled economic times last? How far down will the economy go? And how many people will be able to hold on to their jobs while they wait for the economy to recover?
Here's what economic analysts say are the answers: The downturn will continue for another year, according to some of Florida's best-known economic forecasters. Joblessness could rise by as much as another half percentage point, to 6 percent, before it levels off.
And the predictions point to mid-2009 as the point at which the economy begins to perk up.
The downturn is actually a recession for the state, in the view of University of Florida economist David Denslow at the Bureau of Economic and Business Research. His prediction: The economy will show little growth or a decline of perhaps 2 percent or 3 percent in gross domestic product until the recovery begins in mid-2009.
Denslow figures the recession began in March 2007, which would make it about as long as the recession the state went through in the early 1990s. A similar view is held by forecasters for the Florida Legislature, who in April issued a report saying that "normal economic growth" isn't expected until mid-2009.