Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon's economy is showing signs of life, but don't expect things to be back to normal anytime soon. 

That was the message Thursday from state economists, who delivered a quarterly revenue forecast to a panel of lawmakers in Salem. 

State income tax revenues are down slightly from the previous forecast, but for now lawmakers won't have to make any additional cuts to state programs. 

Oregon economist Tom Potiowsky says even with a recovery projected to begin later this year, Oregon will have double digit unemployment for some time.

Tom Potiowsky:  "The jobs are going to come back slow.  So we're not looking till early 2013 till we get back to our previous high employment level."

In Washington state, economists said this week that the state's unemployment rate is expected to peak sometime next year.  But they predicted the rate won't go as high as previously thought.

Online:

Washington revenue forecast

Oregon revenue forecast