Economy bottoms out

Experts say the economy has finally reached rock bottom. That said, the way back looks like a long and rocky road. Brooks Addis owns and operates a construction company in Wilmington. Economic experts say, construction is one of the industries that has suffered most during this recession. So Addis has had to make some changes. "Cut back a hundred dollars here and there a month, save a little bit on gas by putting two people in a truck as opposed to one, you know things like that." Lately, folks have not been building new homes, so he's been falling back on renovations. Keeping his clients happy is also one way to ensure more business despite these hard times. "Doing it right the first time, keeping it simple, and therefore save people money." Hundreds of people gathered at UNCW Tuesday for the annual economic outlook conference. They, too, are looking for ways to ride out the recession, but that ride could take a while. We may have hit rock bottom, but experts say we'll coast there for a bit before things get any better. "The rebound in construction will be fairly slow. The rebound in real estate will be fairly slow. There will be rebounds, but they just won't be as dramatic as they were in the 2002, 2001 recession,” said UNCW economist Woody Hall. Experts say in order to survive this recession businesses have to be patient, although they admit that may be easier said than done. So just how bad is this recession? The experts told the conference that in their 20 plus years of forecasting economic trends, this is by far the worst recession they've seen.