Next year looks like an economic writeoff for California, UCLA forecasters predict.

The economic future -- at least for another year -- is pretty grim for California, according to a prediction issued last week by the UCLA Business Forecasting Project, which is part of the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at the university.

"California closes out 1991 firmly in the grasp of the recession, which now threatens to consume much, if not all, of 1992," wrote Professor David Hensley, project leader.

California employment contracted by 3.2 percent in 1991 and should shrink by another 1.3 percent in 1992, according to the project.

Weakness in the construction, aerospace and finance industries is expected to continue undercutting a recovery, while state and local hiring should be squeezed as well.

In positive news, the inflation dragon has been pretty much lanced; the consumer price index should rise only 2.8 percent next year, before increasing by 3.1 percent in 1993.

Home prices should remain stable through 1993 and just barely blip up in 1994, according to the forecast. The years of stable home prices -- from 1989 through 1994, if the UCLA outlook is correct -- stand in marked contrast to the housing inflation of the mid-1980s.

However, the house price collapse scenario predicted so ardently in East Coast circles has yet to materialize and, if the UCLA crystal-ball gazers are correct, it should not materialize.

Southern California is expected to be hurt by soft office building real estate markets in 1992, said the forecast. "Available data on vacancy rates suggests the problem is bigger in Southern California, particularly in downtown Los Angeles," wrote Hensley. "New office space is coming onto the market fAr faster than the economy's ability to absorb it."

The soft real estate markets should mean losses for state banks and thrifts, and the latter should contract as a result, predicted Hensley.

Bank and thrift mergers also are expected to take their toll on employment.

With federal budget cutbacks looming on the Pentagon, and thus Southland defense industry contractors, the main hope of the Southland economy rests with a national economic recovery.

The national economy should stage a weak rally next year, with real gross national product expanding by 0.7 percent, according to Hensley.

This national recovery, if anemic, should be enough to begin to drag California along with it towards year-end 1992 or early 1993, according to the forecast.