Downsizing Will Cut Into Spokane’s Job Quality This Year

Both employment and unemployment are expected to grow this year in Spokane, “just as they did in 1995,” reports labor economist Fred Walsh.

Again, as before, most of the added jobs will be in “population-dependent” sectors of the economy such as personal and business services, trade and local government.

Also repeating the pattern of corporate restructurings last year and the year before, most cutbacks will come in better jobs - those with higher wages and benefits. And most of the replacement jobs will not be as good.

“This is still true,” the State Employment Security Department’s labor market analyst says, “because much of that restructuring was put off until 1996, so we have not seen all of it yet.”

Better than anyone else, the Spokane statistician ought to know what’s coming in the pipeline, because more than anyone else he is privy to inside information.

The retail market upheaval of recent years, with new stores opening and old ones closing right and left, “has failed to produce as much employment growth as expected,” reports Walsh. “Different ways of carving up the same pie, seems to be the general consensus.”

Retail employment rose 3.3 percent last year, which is also the average for the past five years.

The number of jobs in general merchandise and apparel stores fell 4.4 percent last year, and has declined an average of 0.2 percent annually the past five years.

Manufacturer observes 90th anniversary

Washington Auto Carriage, which made the first school bus bodies in Spokane three-quarters of a century ago, is still in business building truck bodies for contractors, farmers and haulers.

The pioneer manufacturer is celebrating its 90th anniversary this week with an open house at 5301 E. Broadway.

The company’s 1920-vintage school bus cabs were framed with wood and sported “canvass flaps that rolled up and down for windows like the old stage coaches,” says Clif King, company president. “We also made the first leg-irons for the State Prison at Walla Walla, which the museum is sending back for our open house.

“If there’s another industrial-type manufacturer who has been around Spokane longer, I don’t know who it is,” said King. “This is something we are very proud of, and we feel it calls for a special celebration.”

The open house runs through Friday, with refreshments and door prizes.

Post office takes plastic

You can now charge it at the Spokane Post Office.

The post office last week started taking American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa cards for most retail postal purchases, such as stamps and Priority Mail. But credit card still won’t work for trust accounts, bulk mailings, meter settings, money orders, passport fees and collect on delivery (COD) mail.

Debit cards will be accepted for the purchase of all services at retail counters except for passport applications.

The charge program is being phased in this month at larger post offices across the country, including many in Eastern Washington and North Idaho.

Home sales go on line

A revolution in Spokane home shopping is at hand.

The local multiple listing service is going on the Internet.

That will place listings for most of Spokane’s homes for sale at shopper’s fingertips - if they have a computer, modem, telecommunications software and Internet access.

Tom Crowley, president of the Spokane Association of Realtors, said the Spokane Multiple Listing Service (MSL) will hook up with the Realtors Information Network (RIN) on the Internet within a week or two.

Many MSLs around the country are already on the Internet either through RIN or other realty Web sites and on-line services.

RIN, designed to be the national realty web site, has tens of thousands of listings today and plans to expand to half a million within months.

Computerized home shoppers won’t be privy to all the information that the multiple listing service has in its files. Much of that is technical information - listing agreements, commission splits, etc. - that the industry considers proprietary. Shoppers will get an edited “public” version.

But Crowley says it will provide all that would-be buyers need to know to shop by computer for a home anywhere in the United States.

, DataTimes MEMO: Associate Editor Frank Bartel writes a notes column each Wednesday. If you have business items of regional interest for future columns, call 459-5467 or fax 459-5482.