Labor & Employment
Work wanted: Tech manager seeks jobs for staff as company reorganizes
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 is shifting its work…
Labor & Employment Briefs – November 2021
L&I proposes 6% hike for contractor fees The 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 proposed rules will…
Supply chain, labor shortage pose big challenges for state manufacturers
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 bus tour of the…
Starting a side business? Forming LLC could be a good first step
“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 way as corporations.…
Q&A with Jason Mercier
Washington Policy Center Government Reform Director What 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 Seattle with…
Retail
Tri-City shopkeepers bring grit, good luck to holiday shopping season
By Wendy Culverwell and Kristina Lord Cindy Mosley-Cleary took over a gift shop in downtown Kennewick about six years ago and made it her own, packing it with charming pick-me-ups and home décor items. She may be relatively new at owning a retail business, but she had decades of retail sales experience before then. When…
The economy in 2020 slowed but didn’t stop; 2021 will finish much higher
If you are the CFO, treasurer or accountant for any organization, you are excused if you hit the panic button over a year ago. The outbreak of Covid-19 brought unprecedented worry that the machinery of our economy would grind if not to a halt, then stagger forward. Those worries were understandable for anyone charged with…
Benton County cannabis sales increase 16% in FY2021
Recreational cannabis sales in Benton County reached more than $39.6 million in fiscal year 2021. That’s up 16% from $34 million in fiscal year 2020. The increase over the previous year shows a slower rate of growth compared to the nearly 43% growth rate in fiscal year 2020 over the previous year. Statewide, sales increased…
State budget, data privacy are top priorities for retailers in 2021
Washington retailers will be laser-focused on the state budget when the 2021 Legislature convenes in January. They also expect lawmakers to revisit a data privacy bill that passed in the Senate this year but not the House. It has been revised for 2021. Mark Johnson, senior vice president of policy and governmental affairs for the…
Retail sales face decline but likely less than elsewhere
Last year was a very good year for retail sales in the greater Tri-Cities. For the first time, taxable retail sales in the two counties breached the $6 billion mark, ending 2019 at nearly $6.4 billion, as the Benton-Franklin Trends graph shows. Taxable sales grew year over year by 9.8%. This is the second-best performance…