Chris Chmura was recently quoted in an article by Emily Dooley of the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

EMILY C. DOOLEY TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Published: June 9, 2009

The Richmond region has lost more jobs than any other metro area in the state, an economist said yesterday.

From when employment — the number of jobs — peaked in the Richmond area in August 2007 through March 2009, the region lost 26,000 jobs. The job losses included thousands resulting from the bankruptcies of Circuit City Stores Inc., LandAmerica Financial Group Inc., and Qimonda AG.

The Hampton Roads area’s employment hit its highest mark in July 2007. Northern Virginia’s peak came a year later. Both regions have lost 20,000 jobs since their employment peaked.

Despite the time differences, the numbers can be compared because they represent the duration and depth of the recession in a given area, said Christine Chmura, president and chief economist at the Richmond firm Chmura Economics & Analytics.

But there also is a bright side: The layoffs should not be so severe in the months to come.

“We’re still declining . . . but the worst of it is behind us,” Chmura said while presenting the Virginia Economic Forecast funded by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy for the past 10 years.

Virginia also is doing better than the nation. From March 2008 to March 2009, Virginia employment fell by 2.4 percent. During that same period, employment fell by 3.5 percent nationwide, the report said.

Chmura said she expects the recession to end during the fourth quarter of this year or early in 2010.

The reason: The stock market is performing well; inventories of goods are declining, indicating that demand will renew a need for supply; federal stimulus money will begin or already has filtered into the public; and consumer confidence is rising.

“The fastest rate of decline is behind us,” Chmura said.

Read the rest of the article here.