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Don’t expect the economy to improve much through 2014 or 2015, said Mike Salsgiver, executive director of Associated General Contractors Oregon-Columbia Chapter.

Right now there are too many homes on the market selling for too little in all the wrong places, he said.

And in commercial construction, there’s just not much activity in the private sector right now.

Considering it takes 18 to 36 months to get from an idea stage to a project start, that means things just don’t bode well for the industry for the next few years, Salsgiver said.

“Our industry as a whole can not recover until the economy recovers,” he said.

, compared with the 5 percent or so a year needed to put a dent in unemployment numbers.

The AP also mentioned that The National Association of Home Builders expects construction of only 605,000 houses and apartments this year, which is down more than 70 percent from the 2.1 million in 2005 at the peak of the housing boom.