Silverdale Chamber Business Brief

The 6 Chambers of Commerce in Kitsap County are asking the same question of our members to provide both local and countywide insight into what our business community is experiencing. If you are a member of multiple Chambers, please complete only one Chamber's survey for your business each week.

Click here for the most recent

data reported by

the Kitsap Public Health District.

Results from Last Week's Survey:

As a business, what are you currently doing to protect your employees and create a safe work environment amidst the current COVID surge?

The Silverdale Chamber is committed to learning how best we can

engage and work for our business membership. Your participation in poll

questions like these help us to work better for you!

September 11th Marks 20th Anniversary

In memory of the lives lost and in honor of those who were on scene, as well as everyone impacted by the tragic events of September 11th, 2001, the entire Kitsap community is invited to gather at the Kitsap 9/11 Memorial in Bremerton to pay respects on the 20th anniversary with music and guest speakers.

Kitsap 9/11 Memorial

1300 Highland Avenue

Bremerton, WA 98337

Located in the Southeast corner of Evergreen Rotary Park

5:30 pm until 7:00 pm

(the Flag will be raised to full mast at 7:00 pm)

The Need to Be

Resilient is Great

We are not out of the pandemic woods yet. The Delta variant is certainly ensuring that. As businesses open and go back into full swing, the typical challenges of business ownership are still there along with the new challenges of dealing with full operations and people problems amidst growing concern of what this variant may mean for businesses.

Now is a great time to be practicing resilience skills. While some of us have better resilience and coping skills than others, there are many things that each of us can do to live well.

Read the full article from Live Well Kitsap's Lesli Dullum Tutterrow.

Initiative Filed to Ease Fast-Approaching Deadline for Long-Term Care Tax

Former state Rep. Cary Condotta has introduced a citizens initiative to give people a choice regarding Washington state’s long term care (LTC) program and the payroll tax that goes with it. The legislature passed the law in 2019 and it will go into effect in January 2022. Employers will be forced to collect a tax of 58 cents per $100 of earnings and remit it to the state.

Condotta’s group has submitted I-1436 to the Secretary of State. Citizens will have through the end of the year to collect signatures on the petition. A copy of the initiative can be obtained here. I-1436 would make it optional to participate in Washington’s long-term care insurance.

He shared the news of the initiative petition on KVI’s John Carlson radio show Thursday morning. “You’re in a program that you’ll probably never see the benefit of,” he said.

Condotta listed several examples of flaws in the program. If you’re less than 10 years from retirement, you can’t get vested; yet you’ll still have to pay into it. If you move out of state, you can’t use the benefit as a resident of another state. “Everybody pays the tax,” he said.

Carlson responded “that’s taxation without representation.”

Read more here.

August Jobs Numbers Show Fragile Economic Recovery

Last Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the August jobs report. It was a huge disappointment. The economy added only 235,00 jobs, but we were expecting around 750,000. In July we added more than 1 million. This is a huge pullback, most likely because of the surge in COVID cases caused by the Delta variant.

Why it matters: With the 235,000 jobs added, plus upward revisions for June and July, the economy now has 5.3 million fewer jobs than it had prior to the pandemic.

By the numbers: Two key datapoints jump out as proof that the Delta variant is the culprit for the slowing job market.

First, job growth in leisure and hospitality completely stalled in August. The sector added no jobs in August. It had been averaging over 300,000 jobs added over the last four months. That was a sign of a reopening economy. Food service and drinking places shed 42,000 jobs, which was offset by gains in arts, entertainment, and recreation. As former CBO Director Doug Holtz-Eakin noted, if the leisure and hospitality sector had added jobs like it had in recent months, the total jobs number would’ve been near expectations.
Second, the number of workers that teleworked rose in August for the first time since December 2020. Their staying home to avoid the virus signals Americans are likely reducing other activities that are slowing the economy.

The unemployment rate fell to 5.2%, but this was due to only 190,000 entering the labor force in August. The labor force participation rate and employment-population ratios are still well off their levels prior to COVID.

Wage growth was the only silver lining in the report. Hourly wages grew 0.6% in August from July. On an annual basis they grew 4.3% from last year. This is good news for workers. The shortage of workers to fill available jobs is driving these wage gains.

Bottom line: On the August pace of 235,000 jobs a month, it would take almost 2 years to reach our pre-COVID employment level. That would mean it would take roughly 3 ½ years to fully recover. Even though this would be a faster rebound than after the Great Recession, this is much too slow. We need to pick up the pace of job creation and the pace of workers filling available positions.

360-692-6800

Silverdale Chamber of Commerce

Hours of Operation

Monday - Thursday - 11 am to 5 pm

Friday & Saturday - 11 am to 3pm