West VirginiaUniversitys Bureau of Business and Economic Research will present the 2003 Economic Outlook for West Virginia for the first time on the West VirginiaUniversity campus at 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21, in Room 458 of the Business and Economics building.

The outlook has been presented for the past eight years in Charleston, and this year will be given there on Tuesday, Nov. 19.

George Hammond, director of the West Virginia Outlook Project for the WVU College of Business and Economics, will discuss the outlook for West Virginia jobs, income, population and the gross state product. The presentation is open to the public.

“At our last forecast, the nation had just experienced the attacks of Sept. 11 and was suffering also from the dot-com bust,”Hammond said.”The questions were, �€~Are we in a recession or will we enter a recession?”

Today, theres no doubt about the recession, and the questions are whether the state and national economies have hit the bottom, whether the recession is nearing its end, and how strong a recovery might be, he added.

Hammond, a research assistant professor, has directed the West Virginia Economic Outlook Project for eight years. He has a doctorate in business economics from IndianaUniversity.