The current economic downturn isn't the first one Americans have faced, and it probably won't be the last.

Another certainty, say local economists, is this: The crisis is going to end, and the economic recovery is likely to be longer-lasting than the downturn.

"I will put money on it now," said Mark Thompson, the Cree Walker Chair of Business Administration in the Hull College of Business at Augusta State University. "I may not know exactly when but we will recover and have a sustained period of economic expansion."

Since 1854, there have been 32 recorded cycles of economic contraction and expansion in U.S. history. The most famous contraction was the Great Depression, which lasted from 1929 to 1933. But on average, the recovery lasts much longer than the recession.

The past two recessions and recoveries offer examples. The country went into recession in 2001 from March to November, an eight-month period. The recovery lasted until the recent downturn -- some economists say certain aspects of the economy such as the housing market started contracting last year, but the National Bureau of Economic Research has yet to label it a recession.

Before that, a contraction happened from July 1990 to March 1991, another eight-month period. The recovery lasted 10 years.

Dr. Thompson said he expects the recovery from this particular downturn to begin either in the early or middle part of next year. Though many people are drawing parallels to the Great Depression, he says that link is a stretch.

"Unemployment is under 7 percent versus the Great Depression, where it was in the neighborhood of 20 to 25 percent," Dr. Thompson said. "Yes, we have seen a huge number of cuts in terms of employment, but we're not even close to that percent we saw in the Great Depression. Our financial markets, the system is a much better system, it's a well-known system, a well-developed system.

"Yeah, we have some things going on right now we need to adjust and correct for and we're experiencing that, but in terms of comparing it to the Great Depression, I don't see that comparison."

Brigitte Ziobrowski, a finance professor at Hull College, said the combination of factors affecting the economy is the worse since the Great Depression, but she agrees this crisis won't be as severe. The economic system has a lot more protection for markets, consumers and investors, which were put in place after the Great Depression, she said.

Dr. Ziobrowski said she expects the financial market to rebound in 2009, but the real estate market, which she called the main cause of the downturn, will come back much slower. She said the real estate market won't likely hit bottom until 2010.

When the recovery begins, it will be led by job growth. Dr. Ziobrowski said employment makes people feel secure about their income, which in turn makes them comfortable about spending.

Dr. Thompson agreed.

"Employment would be the one major sign I would be looking at," he said, adding that a sustained economic growth of 3 percent annually would be optimal.

But until the recovery begins, Dr. Ziobrowski suggests people ride it out and maintain their optimism.

"Financial markets always have recovered, and I believe strongly they will," she said. "I do believe in the American economy and I do believe in Capitalism. And that will rear up its head again."