WASHINGTON — The businesses on the front lines of the dismal economy say the recession is getting worse in almost every part of the country, and in a bleak new forecast they see no improvement until late this year at the earliest.
A Federal Reserve snapshot of business activity issued Wednesday showed widespread declines in production, from the factories of Cleveland to the high-tech firms of Texas and California, in blue-collar construction jobs and at white-collar accounting firms.
The survey, known as the Beige Book, rated the prospects for economic improvement anytime soon as “poor, with a significant pickup not expected before late 2009 or early 2010.”
Factories exposed to the housing industry were hardest hit. The only bright spots were in food, drugs and biotechnology products.
