A new report from a business-focused nonprofit points to slowing job growth, a difficult tax environment and other pressures as suppressing business in the state.
Tod Leiweke, CEO of the Kraken NHL team and one of the key figures pushingto return the SuperSonics NBA franchise to Seattle, dished up some economic words of warning for state lawmakers on July 16.
The economy will keep doing what economies do. It will surprise you and worry you, and that’s not going to change. What can change is how prepared you are when it does.
Unemployment in the Tri-Cities continued its regular seasonal decline in May and more people have jobs than a year ago, but the number of unemployed workers also has grown.
The 26-member council, which includes Columbia Basin College president Rebekah Woods, will serve as a venue for “candid discussions,” Ferguson said, adding that he plans to attend every quarterly meeting. The Democratic governor said Washington hasn’t convened such a panel in two decades.
Thousands of Tri-Cities workers at the Hanford nuclear site and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are watching a federal budget process that could determine whether a second consecutive year of deep job cuts can be avoided.
Consumer price inflation reached 4.2% in May, the highest mark in three years, boosted largely by higher energy prices that have spiked because of the Iran war, according to federal numbers released on June 10.
State agency leaders received a dire warning from Gov. Bob Ferguson’s office on June 5 that they’re headed toward “what will likely be the most challenging budget any of us has yet faced.”
