L.A.’s economy will skate by for the rest of 2008, just avoiding recession, and begin to turn around in 2009 as the regional and national economies recover, according to a forecast released Thursday morning by California State University Long Beach.

The forecast has L.A. County posting flat employment for all of 2008, picking up to a modest 0.9 percent growth rate in 2009. In 2007, L.A. added 23,000 jobs, for a sluggish growth rate of 0.6 percent.

Nonetheless, if the forecast bears out, L.A. County would be the only one in the Southern California region to stay out of recession, defined as year-over-year job loss. The county has not been hit as hard as its neighbors in the housing and finance sectors, note forecast authors and Cal State Long Beach economics professors Joseph Maggadino and Lisa Grobar.

“During the housing boom, L.A. County did not experience the rapid growth in housing-related employment that other parts of the region experienced because the county was already built-out,” Grobar said. “Consequently, as the housing market has declined, job losses in sectors related to the housing market have not been as severe in L.A. County as they have been in other areas.”

The forecast says that for the rest of 2008, the county will see year-over-year job losses in the housing, finance and retail industries, as well as a hefty 5 percent job loss in the information sector thanks to labor unrest in the entertainment industry. However, these will be offset by growth in the health and private education sectors, as well as personal services and leisure/hospitality.