At a glance

Companies hiring locally in 2011:

Brevini Wind: 100 or more, working toward a goal of 450 in 2012.

Progress Rail Services: 175 being hired now, working toward a goal of 650 by 2012.

Mursix Corp.: Hoping to reach workforce of 200 by February, with a goal of 300 or more by 2014.

When we'll bounce back

When will East Central Indiana -- and the rest of Indiana -- bounce back from the recession? When will jobs come back, and the unemployment rate recede from around 10 percent?

What's the forecast?

  • 7-8 percent unemployment could return "five years out," says Jim Diffley, chief regional economist of IHS Global Insight.
  • The "optimum" of 6 percent unemployment could come back "in no less than four years," said economist Michael Hicks of Ball State University.
  • This year, unemployment could drop to 8.7 percent, Hicks said.
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    From the floor of his company's sleek new manufacturing facility west of Muncie, Todd Murray can see the recovery.

    As Murray shows visitors around the 170,000-square-foot Mursix Corp. facility still being completed along Interstate 69, his enthusiasm is evident.

    "Less than two years ago we had 88 employees," Murray said. "By the second week of February we plan to have 190."
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