The past 15 months have been a period of great growth for the electronic communication compliance and archiving firm and they will be adding roles in Web Development, Administration, Accounting, Customer Service and Tech support.  Employment will vary from part-time to full-time depending on the position and work load.

CEO Craig Brauff is very happy at the prospects of hiring more local workers and helping our local and Eastside economy, as Erado continues to experience growth.

To apply for open positions, visit the Erado Career Page.

Please send resume and letter of interest to JoeConnector(at)gmail.com if you are interested.

These are among the results of the latest update of the Intuit Inc.(Nasdaq: INTU) Small Business Employment Index, covering the period between Aug. 24 and Sept. 23.The monthly report found that small business employment grew by 0.3 percent in September, equating to an annual growth rate of 3.3 percent. Hours worked and compensation both increased by 0.3 percent.  Since the hiring trend began in October 2009, small businesses have created 720,000 new jobs. The Index is based on figures from small businesses with fewer than 20 employees that use Intuit Online Payroll.

Based on these latest numbers and revised national employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Intuit revised upward the previously reported growth rate for August to 0.3 percent from 0.18 percent. This equates to 65,000 jobs added in August, up from a previously reported 35,000 jobs.

“September’s small business employment figures are a big relief,” said Susan Woodward, the economist who worked with Intuit to create the Index. “After all the uproar over the threatened European financial meltdown, good news is very welcome. Unlike in August, there is no softness in September’s numbers: employment is up, hours worked are up and compensation is up.

“These solid numbers may be due to the fact that residential property prices have increased for five months in a row. There are all kinds of small businesses linked to property, such as construction contractors, real estate agents and brokers.”

Increase in Hours Worked, Compensation

Small business hourly employees worked an average of 110.4 hours in September, making for a 25.5-hour workweek. This is a 0.3 percent increase from the revised August figure of 110.0 hours.

“In this recession,these smallest businesses have tended to cut back on employee hoursrather than lay people off, so it’s good to see hourly people working more,” added Woodward. “A substantial fraction of the people who work part-time do so because they cannot find full-time jobs or because their hours have been cut back, so I’d guess that employees themselves are pleased to have hours rise also.”

Average monthly pay for all small business employees was $2,694 per month in September. This is a 0.3 percent increase compared to the August revised estimate of $2,685 per month. The equivalent annual wages would be about $32,300 per year, which is part-time work for many small business employees.

“Another welcome change is that compensation is up by a healthy amount and equivalent to an annual growth rate of more than 3 percent,” added Woodward.  “This is very good considering that over the last 30 years real income has grown at a rate of about 1.5 percent per year. We have some distance to go to make up for growth that didn’t happen during the recession, but this is a good start.”

Small Business Employment by Geography

The Intuit Index also breaks down employment by census divisions and states across the country.

“Small business employment at the division and state level also looks more positive,” said Ginny Lee, senior vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Employee Management Solutions division.“The Pacific division posted the greatest increase of 0.5 percent while the East South Central division showed a slight decline but one that’s statistically insignificant. At the state level, California, Florida and Maryland all showed the highest growth with an increase of 0.5 percent. Oregon and New York were the only states to show slight declines but again these were  statistically insignificant and therefore not worrisome.”

Small Business Employment by U.S. Census Division continues to grow in all parts of the country except for a slight decline in the East South Central divisions. The data reflects employment from approximately 70,000 small business employers who use Intuit Online Payroll. The month-to-month changes are seasonally-adjusted and informative about the overall economy.

Small Business Employment by State is up for most states in which Intuit Online Payroll has more than 1,000 small business firms represented. The month-to-month changes are seasonally adjusted and informative about the overall economy.

About the Index
The Intuit Small Business Employment Index is based on aggregate and anonymous online employment data from approximately 70,000 small business employers, each with fewer than 20 employees. These small businesses use Intuit Online Payroll from Intuit, theNo. 1 payroll provider with more than 1 million customers. These smallest employers are important to the economy as they comprise 87 percent of the total U.S. private employer base and employ nearly 20 million people. More information is available at: index.intuit.com.

Intuit reports data for three categories: small business employment, compensation and hours worked. Intuit analyzes and publishes the data at the beginning of each month. The Index also includes employment data broken down by geography. As with the government data, there may be revisions to the Intuit Index numbers. These revisions are partly due to calculations using the latest month of new Intuit data. These calculations include recomputing seasonal factors and the moving average process used to obtain the curve, which can change the values for previously reported months. Changes to the data are also due to revisions to the government employment data, which is used to calculate the Intuit Index.

While the Intuit Small Business Employment Index offers macroeconomic insight about the economy generally, it does not indicate or represent changes in Intuit’s business results for any period.

The Index data reflects monthly employment activity in small businesses, and is adjusted to account for changes in Intuit’s Online Payroll customer base. The percent change is measured monthly using the change in employment for existing Intuit Online Payroll customers from one month to the next. The set of customers changes each month so the measurement is the change, for each pair of months, for customers who are present in both the earlier and the later month.

For the 2011-2012 service year, Ecology will hire 150 WCC AmeriCorps members using a $2 million AmeriCorps grant from the Washington State Commission for National and Community Service. AmeriCorps Education Awards received through the Corps Network, a national service partner, will support the remaining positions.

WCC’s AmeriCorps members sign on for a year of service that starts in October 2011 and ends September 2012. Ecology WCC members work on environmental and community service projects and disaster response.

Members earn $8.67 an hour and receive a $5,550 AmeriCorps education award upon completing their service year. The award may be used for student loans or future tuition expenses.

The WCC was created in 1983 and has provided jobs and work training for about 1,600 young adults. In 1994, WCC started received federal AmeriCorps funding, allowing crews to carry out on-the-ground projects across the state. Local communities rely on WCC to complete environmental projects by forming cost-share agreements with Ecology.

Since 1994, WCC crews have:

* Planted more than 7.5 million native trees and shrubs.

* Improved or restored 15,800 acres of new habitat for fish and wildlife.

* Constructed or repaired nearly 3,000 miles of trails and boardwalks – enough to cover the distance between Seattle and Boston.

* Built almost 2 million feet of fencing for agricultural landowners to help keep animals out of creeks and rivers.

* Opened about 240 miles of habitat in salmon-bearing streams.

* Provided 133,500 hours of emergency response service to communities in need.

* Recruited and managed more than 65,000 community volunteers working on environmental projects.

* Taught environmental classes for some 191,000 students

When WCC members are not working directly with local organizations, they are called upon for disaster response. In 2011, WCC crews assisted with emergency response efforts in Washington, including flood response in Ellensburg and shelter operations after the White Swan fire near Yakima. As part of the interstate compact associated with the federal funding, crews also worked to help communities in Alabama and Missouri that suffered extensive tornado damage earlier this spring.

“In a tight economy, the WCC is making a critical difference for our young adults, our communities and environment,” said Nick Mott who oversees WCC activities across the state. “By providing practical job experience and critical professional training, more than half of our members continue on to full-time employment or go on to further their education.”

Last year, Ecology used federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding to add 10 new WCC crews, employing 50 young adults. The remaining recovery act funding expires in 2012.

In 2011, the Washington Legislature created the WCC “Puget Sound Corps” as a partnership of Ecology and the state Department of Natural Resources. The new legislation means new opportunities for WCC crews, including veterans. The Puget Sound Corps will support the Puget Sound Partnership’s Action Agenda to restore, protect and preserve the Sound by 2020, Mott said. The official rollout of the WCC Puget Sound Corps will occur this fall.

Cover Letter Review (Tues. Oct. 19th, 10:30-11:20 a.m.)

Join this workshop to learn what cover letters, letters of inquiry and marketing letters should contain to improve your competitiveness in the job market.

Understanding the Labor Market: How to Plan for Your Career (Wed. Oct. 20th, 1:30-2:20 p.m.)

Join this workshop to learn about current trends in the job market, how to find that information on your own in the future, and how to use it to plan your career path and job search.

Are You LinkedIn? (Thurs., Oct. 28th, 1:30-2:20 p.m.)

More than 75 million people are using an on-line networking resource called LinkedIn for business development, career management, job searches and recruitment.  Learn how you can get LinkedIn!

How do employers use LinkedIn? (Wed., Nov. 17th, 1:30-3:00 p.m.)

An interactive discussion with employers about how you can use LinkedIn to reach them and others who may be hiring.

Networking & the Hidden Job Market:  Tapping into Unadvertised Jobs (Wed., Nov. 3^rd, 1:30-3:20 p.m.)

Did you know that nearly 80% of job openings are not advertised? Learn how to use networking strategies to help find them.

Salary Negotiation (Tues. Nov. 9th, 12:30-2:00 p.m.)

Learn non-confrontational strategies that can add significantly to your lifetime earnings. Instructor Allan Hay is a published author and one of the Pacific Northwest’s leading authorities on the subject of salary negotiation.

To register for any of these workshops call Bellevue College’s Center for Career Connections intake desk at (425) 564-2279, email careers@bellevuecollege.edu, or stop by the Center’s office on the second floor of the college’s Student Services Building (Building B).

Bellevue College’s Center for Career Connections provides a wide range of free and paid career resources for BC students, alumni and the general public. More information about its services and learning opportunities is available at http://bellevuecollege.edu/careers/.

Increasingly, adults are heading back to school to improve their career prospects and earning power, and are turning to CareerBridge.Wa.Gov (www.CareerBridge.Wa.Gov) for answers from the state’s first education “consumer reports” website.

In many cases, Career Bridge details how many students completed an educational program, whether they got a job, and how much they earned-providing a new level of accountability and transparency for those considering where to go to school, and what to study.

Ultimately, Career Bridge enables potential students to sort through dozens, if not hundreds of training programs, and enroll in one that matches their interests and is likely to lead to a living-wage job.

The website also connects to employment data from the state’s Employment Security Department so users can learn whether an occupation is in demand, what it pays on average and its projected growth rate.

“Education can be costly in both time and money. This online database makes it easier to find the training that will make you competitive for the job you seek” said Eleni Papadakis, executive director of the website’s sponsoring agency, the Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board. “The consumer report side of Career Bridge means you can find the training that best suits your needs and budget.”

High school students involved in career planning are also using Career Bridge to chart their next educational step. The site includes an Explore Careers area that allows students to view their interests and abilities and how they align with a potential career. The site also shows students ways to pay for their education through federal and state grants, scholarships, tax credits and work study.

The Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board is a partnership of labor, business and government, dedicated to helping Washington residents obtain and succeed in family-wage jobs, while meeting employers’ needs for skilled workers.

Finding a job is the best substitute for an unemployment check, but as more and more Americans exhaust their jobless benefits, employment opportunities remain sparse.

In July, the state unemployment rate was 8.6 percent, down from 9.5 percent a year ago; however, in parts of Washington it is in double-digits.  The Portland-Vancouver metro area reports 13.3 percent unemployment, about the same as last year.  Economists worry that it may take years for our economy to return to its peak of a couple of years ago.

Ironically, the longer we experience high unemployment, the harder it will be for private employers to begin hiring.

That’s because Washington employers bear the entire burden for funding unemployment benefits.  Many small businesses in our state saw their unemployment insurance (UI) taxes jump 300 to 400 percent the beginning of this year, and preliminary indications are employers may have to brace for an average 27 percent increase in January.  In addition, state lawmakers returning to Olympia will face intense pressure to increase unemployment benefits further, which will increase the UI taxes even more.

Employers are caught in a vicious cycle.  Our unemployment system is experience rated, meaning that as layoffs increase, UI taxes increase as well, leaving employers with less money to keep people working and create new jobs.  In addition, there’s an additional socialized UI tax which requires all employers to share the burden of UI taxes on employers who went out of business or are in highly seasonable occupations.

Unfortunately, skyrocketing UI taxes are just part of the problem.

Some lawmakers want to hike general taxes as well to bail the state out of its projected $3 billion revenue shortfall, and next January, employers will face yet another round of increases in workers’ compensation taxes, which pay for workplace injuries.

In essence, private employers could be looking at a triple whammy next year: higher taxes and fees, higher unemployment taxes and higher workers’ compensation premiums.

None of the several initiatives on the ballot this fall addresses the vicious cycle of UI taxes.  But astoundingly, union leaders and some legislators plan to introduce legislation that will increase unemployment benefits, extend coverage to more people who quit their jobs, and add additional weeks of jobless benefits — all of which will push UI taxes even higher.

They need to understand that higher unemployment benefits are counterproductive if they cripple employers’ ability to hire or, worse yet, put them out of business.  Legislators should focus on increasing jobs, not jobless benefits.

As the listless economy shambles on, the state’s UI trust account, funded by employers, is being drained.  Hopefully, it won’t go bankrupt as it did in the 1980s, forcing us to borrow from the federal government to pay unemployment benefits.

Currently, 31 other states have exhausted their unemployment insurance trust accounts.  Since the recession began, those states have borrowed just under $40 billion from the feds, and the situation is expected to worsen by year’s end.

Borrowing money to pay jobless benefits creates a larger problem as employers — the job creators — will be hit with even higher taxes, because the loans must be repaid with interest.

The best solution to joblessness is jobs.  Instead of constantly expanding jobless benefits, legislators should help spur job creation by reducing regulatory costs for employers, cutting taxes, and providing economic incentives.  A reenergized economy will provide more tax revenue to the state, replenish the unemployment trust account and give working families the security of a job.

There really is no substitute for a paycheck.

About the Author

Don Brunell is the president of the Association of Washington Business. Formed in 1904, AWB is Washington’s oldest and largest statewide business association, and includes more than 7,000 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.

By Don C. Brunell, President, Association of Washington Business

With unemployment stubbornly stalled at 9.6 percent, the Obama administration is desperately looking for ways to get the economy moving again.

Recently, in a meeting with my manufacturing counterparts from around the country, President Obama’s representative read a speech about all the administration is doing to spur manufacturing in America. Specifically, she tried to enlist our help in convincing companies to invest the $1.8 trillion they’re holding in reserve in added production capacity and new products and services.

While we share the president’s goal, the fact is these are uncertain times in a fluid political environment. The one thing investors and companies need — from giants like Boeing to tiny Printcom Inc., in Burien — is certainty.  They have to know that if they take their money out of savings and buy a new machine or hire new employees, they have a reasonable chance of recouping their investment.

Currently, that’s not the case.

Uncertainty about higher taxes, increasing regulations, health reform costs, cap-and-trade and lopsided pro-union policies have many employers and investors sitting on the sidelines.  The Obama representative sincerely promised to take our concerns back to the White House. Did any of us believe it would make a dent in the president’s thinking?

Heck no! That’s the problem.

Employers fully expect Congress to come back in a lame duck session after the November elections and jam through anti-business legislation.

First on the agenda:  card check legislation, which eliminates the secret ballot and allows union organizers to look over workers’ shoulders as they “vote” whether to form a union.

The unions call it the Employee Free Choice Act, but it is anything but free choice.

Even former U.S. Senator George McGovern, a liberal pro-union icon who was the 1972 Democrat presidential candidate, called card check fundamentally wrong.  He wrote in The Wall Street Journal:  “I spent some time running a hotel. It was an eye-opening introduction to something most business operators are all-too familiar with — the difficulty of controlling costs and setting prices in a weak economy. Despite my trust in government, I would have been alarmed by an outsider taking control of basic management decisions that determine success or failure in a business where I had invested my life savings.”

Also on the agenda may be some form of cap-and-trade legislation. This legislation would set emission limits for carbon dioxide and then charge a fee to manufacturers, utilities and others who exceed those limits. In Europe, this scheme has crippled competitiveness without improving air quality, yet Congress seems intent on implementing it anyway.

It seems today that in the president’s haste to set historic political landmarks, such as Obamacare, the impacts of those policies on employers are disregarded, even in the midst of a severe recession.

We asked the president’s representative to go back to Washington and tell Congress and the president to start listening rather than telling employers what’s best for them. Stop bashing business and stop all these new costly programs that the American people don’t want and can’t afford.

Rich Karlgaard, publisher of Forbes, said it best in his recent column, “The Forgotten Employer.” Wrote Karlgaard:  “In a national debate about jobs and job creation hardly anyone is talking to the job creators about jobs. The forgotten man in this crisis is the employer.  We forget him at our peril.”

About the Author
Don Brunell is the president of 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 7,000 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.