employment

Four utilities in Washington state received funding from the U.S Department of Energy to strengthen the electrical grid against future wildfires and ensure reliability to customers. That funding comes from the federal Grid Resilience and Innovations Partnerships Program, which is investing in 58 projects across 44 states.

(Runtime 4:14)By Jeanie Lindsay / Northwest News NetworkThe final Friday of September was an emotional day at Larch Corrections Center.The…

With the impending closure of the WestRock Paper Mill in Tacoma, about 400 workers could be displaced. “It's really significant,” said Chelsea Mason-Placek, who is the workforce development director for the Washington State Labor Council. “This is a much larger layoff than we typically see.”

With a record 9.3 million jobs open in the U.S. as of April, and a workforce in no hurry to get back to work, a growing number of employers are looking to hiring bonuses to fill their ranks. Long a tradition on Wall Street, sign-on bonuses are rare in low-wage work such as fast food, warehousing and food delivery. Now, as the economy has picked up, hiring bonuses are everywhere.

Signs of an economic boom are emerging as Americans open up their wallets to spend freely. Retail sales soared 9.8% in March, according to a report Thursday from the Commerce Department. The increase follows a 2.7% slump in February, which analysts blamed partly on severe winter weather.

Because of the COVID-19 crisis, 47% of adults say their households have lost employment income and close to 40% have delayed getting medical care, according to early results of a Census Bureau survey.

The new rules apply only to workers in critical infrastructure jobs, a broadly defined group that includes employees in fields from health care to financial services.

Economists warned that business and consumer caution about the virus is likely to weigh on job growth in the months to come.

LGBTQ Washingtonians have had job and housing protections since 2006. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear three cases October 8 over anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ employees.

A long-awaited update to federal overtime rules means about 1.3 million workers will be entitled to extra pay when they work more than 40 hours a week. But critics say it doesn't go far enough.