By Isaac Bonnell

The Technology Alliance Group (TAG) held a monthly luncheon Nov. 20 focusing on the state of the economy and what to expect in the coming year.

Hart Hodges, director of WWU’s Center for Economic and Business Research, spoke to a crowd of more than 70 people and focused on the economic recovery. Each recession since the 1970s has become longer than the previous recession, and this one is no different, he said.

“It does look like it will be quite long,” Hodges said of the recovery. “I think it’s going to be an ugly recovery and it will be drawn out.”

A jobless recovery, in which the economy improves without adding very many jobs, is likely to become reality, he said. It happened with the 2001 recession and will likely happen again.

“A much higher portion of people in job market are working part time for economic reasons, meaning they can’t find anything better,” he said.

Hodges also spoke about the assumption that the economy in Washington lags behind the rest of the nation. The signs of the recession didn’t show up as quickly in the Pacific Northwest, but the effects are still devastating.

“Part of what I’m trying to get across is that there are a lot of irregularities in the economy from region to region,” he said.

To learn more about TAG or to attend an upcoming event, visit www.tagnw.org.