OLYMPIA—Speaking before the Issaquah Chamber of Commerce today, Association of Washington Business President Don C. Brunell said the economic recovery is fragile and lawmakers meeting in Olympia must find ways to bolster it.

“We are disheartened by the latest unemployment numbers released by the state yesterday showing the jobless rate rose to 9.5 percent in December,” said Brunell. “What worries us even more is we believe that rate is low because more people have exhausted their benefits or given up searching for employment.”

While the Seattle Metro areas jobless rate is 8.8 percent as reported last November, Longview’s unemployment stands at 12.9 percent and Vancouver is at 10.8 percent.  “That means one out of 10 working age adults is not working and that is staggering,” he said.

The unemployment rate is having an impact on employers, as well, Brunell added. “Some business owners have seen their rates soar by 1,000 percent because of the sour economy. What would be extremely harmful now is for the Legislature to increase costs by expanding eligibility for unemployment benefits,” he said. “Lawmakers and Gov. Gregoire must resist attempts by unions to push that legislation through in Olympia.”

Brunell said employers already received tax increases in 2010; unemployment and workers’ compensation rates increased Jan. 1. That, coupled with a potential tax hike to balance the state’s budget, would hurt our competitiveness, slow job growth and stymie the economic recovery, he said. “That recovery is moving at a snail’s pace already and many of local businesses feel as though the economic downturn has bottomed out, but is bumping along the bottom.”

“We know the recovery is going to be slow,” Brunell concluded, “and that state and local governments are pinched for funding.  The best way to deal with this pain is to grow the private, job-producing, tax-paying sector.

“Just as an incoming tide floats boats stuck in the mud, so too does a growing private sector increase jobs, investments, consumer spending and tax collections.”


About the Association of Washington Business
Formed in 1904, the Association of Washington Business is Washington’s oldest and largest statewide business association, and includes more than 6,800 members representing 650,000 employees. AWB serves as both the state’s chamber of commerce and the manufacturing and technology association. While its membership includes major employers like Boeing, Microsoft and Weyerhaeuser, 90 percent of AWB members employ fewer than 100 people. More than half of AWB’s members employ fewer than 10. For more about AWB, visit www.awb.org.