Governor Jay Inslee announced indoor mask mandates in Washington State will be lifted on March 12. Businesses and restaurants can still have their own mask and vaccination guidelines if they wish to do so, but no longer mandated. The CDC now recommends that only areas with high transmissibility or high case rates wear masks. Most…

The Lacey South Sound Chamber of Commerce announced seven winners of its annual business awards on Feb. 2 at the Indian Summer Golf & Country Club. “The business community has been through a lot during this pandemic and we think it’s more important than ever to show appreciation and recognition of that,” said Executive Director…

The City, in partnering with the Thurston Economic Development Council Center for Business and Innovation, is offering scholarships for Business Startup Training. The five-week training includes instructor-led webinars, access to online course content, one-on-one business coaching, business mentorship, and no-cost access to business plan writing software for six months. More Info 

Lacey MakerSpace is going to receive a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration. The grant will be used to purchase technical equipment and train workers and business owners impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell — also the chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and…

South Sound Business, Antoinette Alexander, Sept 20, 2021 – Lacey, incorporated as a city in 1966, today boasts a population of more than 50,000. Six times over the last eight years, quarterly employment growth within the city and adjacent metro area has ranked within the top 15 percent of the 325 largest U.S. metropolitan counties,…

Breaking down the big US labor shortage: Crunch could partly ease this fall but much of it could take years to fix, Paul Davidson, USA TODAY, September 7, 2021 The most severe worker shortages on record largely were expected to ease this month with the reopening of schools and expiration of enhanced unemployment benefits on…

From the Olympia News – Thurston County WorkSource, which operates the area’s unemployment office, is the setting this Friday for what it calls the “Warehousing and Logistics Hiring Event.” The in-person event will be held outdoors from 10 a.m. to 3 pm. Friday at 1570 Irving St. SW, Tumwater. The event does not require registration;…

OLYMPIA – During the week of July 18 – July 24, there were 4,554 initial regular unemployment claims (down 10.0 percent from the prior week) and 311,097 total claims for all unemployment benefit categories (down 1.5 percent from the prior week) filed by Washingtonians, according to the Employment Security Department (ESD). Washington state data link

By Rolf Boone July 07, 2021 05:30 AM, The Olympian Over the past decade, Kirkland developer MJR Development has acquired office buildings and land near Lacey’s Huntamer Park, infusing what was once a largely vacant and inactive area with new tenants and projects that it calls The Hub. And the company has done it again,…