By CAROLYN CARY
ccary@thecitizennews.com

Retail sales on the Internet may hurt small businesses in the future, economic expert Dr. Donald Ratajczak told Fayette business people Saturday, but those who establish an Internet presence now can protect themselves, he said.

Ratajczak, director of the Economic Forecasting Center and professor of economics at Georgia State University, was keynote speaker for the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce's 33rd Annual Banquet.

The economy is strong, Ratajczak said, and has grown an average of 4 percent a year over the past 14 consecutive quarters. Next week will represent 106 straight months of economic expansion, the longest period of continuous expansion since the 1960s.

The unemployment rate is at 3.2 percent with several factors contributing, he said: Males over 55 years old have decided they don't want to retire after all, and are remaining in the work force; more and more in the labor force are working out of their homes, nearly one third of workers in the building trade are the readily available Mexicans and companies are now hiring at-risk workers they would not have hired before (those with jail records, etc).

He pointed out that 155,000 jobs were created in Georgia last year, which lowered the unemployment rate, and if another 155,000 jobs would be created, that figure would drop to 2.8 percent.

Asked about sales on the Internet and how it might affect small business, he said this past year, retail sales on the Internet represented 1 percent of total sales. He predicted that in 2004, that figures would rise to 9 percent.

“Yes,” he said, “eventually small business will be hurt. But if they recognize now that they must have a presence on the Internet, it will be most helpful”.

Ratajczak is a nationally known economist and one of the leading forecasters in the country. The Wall Street Journal has described him as one of the 20 most widely quoted economists in the world.

He obtained his B.A. from Haverford College in Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. in economics from Massachussetts Institute of Technology.

Back to Business Home Page | Back to the top of the page