Retail

sales on the Internet may hurt small businesses in the

future, economic expert Dr. Donald Ratajczak told Fayette

business people Saturday, but those who establish an

Internet presence now can protect themselves, he said.

Ratajczak,

director of the Economic Forecasting Center and professor

of economics at Georgia State University, was keynote

speaker for the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce's 33rd

Annual Banquet.

The economy

is strong, Ratajczak said, and has grown an average of 4

percent a year over the past 14 consecutive quarters.

Next week will represent 106 straight months of economic

expansion, the longest period of continuous expansion

since the 1960s.

The

unemployment rate is at 3.2 percent with several factors

contributing, he said: Males over 55 years old have

decided they don't want to retire after all, and are

remaining in the work force; more and more in the labor

force are working out of their homes, nearly one third of

workers in the building trade are the readily available

Mexicans and companies are now hiring at-risk workers

they would not have hired before (those with jail

records, etc).

He pointed

out that 155,000 jobs were created in Georgia last year,

which lowered the unemployment rate, and if another

155,000 jobs would be created, that figure would drop to

2.8 percent.

Asked about

sales on the Internet and how it might affect small

business, he said this past year, retail sales on the

Internet represented 1 percent of total sales. He

predicted that in 2004, that figures would rise to 9

percent.

"Yes,"

he said, "eventually small business will be hurt.

But if they recognize now that they must have a presence

on the Internet, it will be most helpful".

Ratajczak

is a nationally known economist and one of the leading

forecasters in the country. The Wall Street Journal has

described him as one of the 20 most widely quoted

economists in the world.

He obtained

his B.A. from Haverford College in Pennsylvania and his

Ph.D. in economics from Massachussetts Institute of

Technology.