Washington State University Tri-Cities is rolling out professional training focused on the needs of Tri-City businesses.The expanded workforce training program is offered in partnership with the city of Richland, Port of Benton and Visit Tri-Cities and falls within the professional development offerings at the WSU Tri-Cities Carson College of Business.Classes...
What’s at stake over a once obscure economic measure – the labor force participation rate? The quick answer: A lot for the current and future economy of the greater Tri-Cities.Machines and robots are replacing labor in some occupations. But growth of an economy still largely depends on the growth of...
A top priority for Washington’s public sector employees will be lobbying the 2023 Legislature to fund contracts negotiated this year by Gov. Jay Inslee’s office.The contracts cover a wide variety of activities, ranging from professional and technical workers to Teamsters, educators, judges, lawyers, state patrol officers and troopers, fish and...
A profitable Kennewick technology business is being closed by its parent as part of a global reorganization blamed on the pandemic.Bruker Inc. is merging Bruker’s Nano Handheld-Mobile Portable XRF unit, which employs about 50, with a sister company in Berlin and closing the office at the end of December. It...
L&I proposes 6% hike for contractor feesThe Washington State Department of Labor & Industries is considering raising the fee to register, renew or be reinstated as a contractor by 5.79% for 2022.L&I is required to charge a fee and to revise the fees at least once every two years. The...
More than a year-and-a-half into the pandemic, it’s clear that Washington manufacturers are contending with two issues that appear likely to remain with us for some time: supply chain disruption and a growing labor shortage.Those two issues came up at nearly every stop during the Association of Washington Business’ annual...
“Corporation, n., an ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.”–Ambrose Bierce, the Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. Regrettably, Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) were not included in Ambrose Bierce’s popular quote from 1910 because LLCs didn’t exist in most states until the 1990s.Still, the quote applies to LLCs in the same...
Washington Policy CenterGovernment Reform DirectorJason MercierWhat is the Washington Policy Center?Washington Policy Center (WPC) is an independent, nonprofit think tank that promotes sound public policy based on free-market solutions.WPC improves lives of Washington state’s citizens by providing accurate, high-quality research for policymakers, the media and the general public. Headquartered in...
Tri-City retailers are staffing up for the holiday shopping season even as customers head online because of the pandemic.U.S. shoppers will spend more than $189 billion online during the holiday season, a 33% increase that represents two years’ worth of typical growth, according to the Adobe Analytics Holiday Forecast 2020.The...
Local manufacturing businesses and jobs have experienced a resurgence in recent years that needs to continue for our state’s livelihood and connection to the global economy.Before the pandemic, the manufacturing sector employed 11.6 million workers in the United States. During the past three years, about 500,000 manufacturing jobs were added...
