NEW YORK CITY-Of the four major commercial real estate sectors, office will take the longest to recover, according to a media briefing by Grubb & Ellis executives forecasting next year's market. However, the local office market will fare much better than the national average.

Office will be the last to recover because "job creation is slow," said Robert Bach, Grubb's senior vice president and chief economist. "Once companies begin to grow again, they'll need to hire," he added, saying that he does not expect a double-dip recession.

But there is progress on the job front. Bach predicted that about 125,000 jobs will be created per month next year, followed by 150,000 in 2012. Those figures are a significant improvement from the 87,000 new ones a month this year.