OAKLAND - Job growth in the Bay Area will be higher than in the nation overall in the next two years, an economist with the Association of Bay Area Governments predicted today.

Paul Fassinger, the agency's economist and director of research, said he expects the region's wage and salary jobs to increase by 40,000 in 2006 and 55,000 in 2007, up from an increase of 22,000 jobs in 2005.

He forecast that the inflation rate in the Bay Area will be 2.5 percent in 2006 and 2.6 percent in 2007, with income growth for 2006 and 2007 at 1.5 percent and 1.6 percent respectively.

Fassinger said the relatively higher job growth in the Bay Area would reverse a trend in recent years in which jobs have grown at a slower pace in the region than in the nation overall.

"We came late to the party,'' he said.

Fassinger said, "2005 was the year that the economy finally returned to normal'' in the Bay Area.

Fassinger spoke at the association's 18th annual regional economic outlook conference.