The economy will grow by less than 3% through 2012, and unemployment will remain above 8% until 2014, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projects.
In its semiannual update of budget and economic data, the agency ”” which serves as the official scorekeeper for President Obama and Congress ”” projects painfully slow progress on the economic front through next year’s election and beyond.
Economic growth will remain slow but steady, it says, increasing by 2.3% this year and 2.7% next year. In a blog post on the agency’s website, director Douglas Elmendorf notes those projections were made in early July ”” before financial market gyrations and some lackluster economic indicators.
Here in the San Joaquin Valley, and particularly Merced County, our unemployment rate is now at 21.5%…….and it’s not showing any signs of improving.