Jobless rate down for county, state
Spokane County’s unemployment rate fell to 5 percent in March from 6.1 percent in February, Washington officials reported Tuesday.
The state jobless rate in March dipped to 4.6 percent, equaling a six-year low. Washington’s February unemployment rate was 4.8 percent.
For the second time this year, the state rate was lower than the national average. The latest U.S. rate is 4.7 percent. Statewide job growth during the first quarter of 2006 was the strongest since 2000, according to state officials. Over the past 12 months, non-farm payrolls have grown by 94,000, or about 3.4 percent. The comparable national figure is a 1.6 percent expansion.
Spokane County’s total non-farm jobs totaled 210,400 in March 2006, compared with 203,400 one year earlier. Fueling that growth were 700 new retail jobs in Spokane, 700 new jobs in financial services and 900 in business services.
Only two Spokane sectors have lost jobs in the past 12 months: electronic product manufacturing and transportation, warehousing and utilities.
Coeur d’Alene
‘Generation Debt’ author to speak
Anya Kamenetz, the 25-year-old author of “Generation Debt: Why Now is a Terrible Time to Be Young,” will speak April 27 at North Idaho College’s Schuler Auditorium.
The 7 p.m. event is free.
Kamenetz’s book grew out of columns that she wrote on “the new economics of being young” for the Village Voice. In “Generation Debt,” Kamenetz argues that the reason kids are moving back home, can’t land career-path jobs and take longer to graduate from college is overwhelmingly economic – not generational laziness.
Kamenetz’s appearance is sponsored by the nonprofit Kootenai County Financial Literacy Task Force, as part of Financial Literacy Week., April 23-29. For more information on events, check out www.idahomoneyeducation.org.
Spokane
SIRTI fills three directorial posts
The Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute has named three business veterans to fill key management posts.
John Overby has been named SIRTI’s director of client services. Overby joined SIRTI a year ago to head the state agency’s technology incubation services.
Linda Hemingway has become director of market development and communications. Hemingway has worked for a number of area technology companies, including LineSoft, ISC and Toolbuilders.
Tim Williams, who has worked both at Hewlett Packard and at Agilent Technologies, is the new SIRTI director of administration and finance.
San Francisco
Google unveils new tool for businesses
Hoping to become less dependent on Internet advertising, online search engine leader Google Inc. is introducing a tool designed to make it easier for companies and their workers to find vital information scattered across a maze of complex software applications.
The latest upgrade to Google’s four-year-old search engine for corporate America underscores the Mountain View, Calif.-based company’s determination to develop other revenue channels besides advertising.
With the improvement to be unveiled today, Google’s corporate search engine will be able to fish through a deep pool of data and display the requested information in a box near the top of the computer screen so users won’t have to scan through other pages.
This “one box” approach is similar to the system that Google deploys at its own Web site whenever visitors are looking for information about local weather forecasts or stock market quotes.