business backgrounder | economy
when asked which government agency was
most problematic, awb members answered:
Department of
Labor & Industries
Department
of Revenue
Department
of Ecology
32%
21%
20%
Act, the corporate accountability measure — and President
Barack Obama’s 2012 health care reform law.
“The problem is not the rules that are self-evidently
absurd,” The Economist said. “It is the ones that sound reasonable on their own but impose a huge burden collectively.”
health care concern
The cost of health care, another longstanding concern
for AWB members, once again ranks high on the list of
employer concerns. Most respondents — 86 percent — said
they still provide health benefits to their employees, but
that figure has dropped from 92 percent in 2006.
Of those who do provide health benefits, 77 percent
said their health insurance premiums rose by more than
10 percent over the past year.
Nearly half — 46 percent — absorbed the higher cost,
while 41 percent either reduced benefits or charged
employees higher co-pays.
Large employers remain most likely to provide health
benefits; more than 90 percent of companies employing
250 people or more are offering it. For companies with 10
or fewer employees, the figure drops to 77 percent.
some businesses doing ok
Still, despite the pessimism about the direction of the
state as a whole, a majority of respondents — 67 percent
— described current business conditions for their own
businesses as either “fairly healthy” or “very healthy.”
The remaining one-third said conditions for their own
companies were “not very healthy” or “not healthy at all.”
This apparent disconnect in attitudes regarding the
overall direction of the state versus individual business
health mirrors the national divide. Some economic indicators are positive, the stock market was flirting with
record-high territory early this year — and yet
unemployment remains high and consumer confidence remains low.
Increased worker productivity partly explains
the situation, according to Steve Lerch, interim
executive director of the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council.
More than three years after the start of the Great
Recession, GDP has returned to pre-recession levels,
and yet unemployment isn’t expected to reach that
milestone until 2014, Lerch told AWB’s Lobby Lunch
audience in February. It takes fewer workers now to
produce the same amount of output.
Indeed, most survey respondents were not ready
to bring on new workers. Fully 70 percent said
they do not expect to add employees during the
next 12 months.
There are signs that productivity is starting to fall, however, and while that would normally be a bad thing, it is
necessary in order for hiring to pick up, Lerch said.
awb up to the challenge
Although most survey respondents are not happy with the
direction of the state, the vast majority — 92 percent —
hold a positive perception of AWB, a rating that has not
changed in the last five
Moore Information, Inc.
years.
www.moore-info.com
One-third of respondents said lobbying the
Legislature on behalf
at a glance
of business is the most
important thing AWB
AWB surveyed its members
does. Another 25 perthis winter to find out what they
cent said providing
think about the economy, state
HealthChoice insurance
government and which issues are
is most important, and
impacting them.
2 3 p e rc e n t w h o s a i d
it ’s keeping members
Seventy-seven percent of
informed about legisrespondents said Washington state
lative and regulatory
has gotten off track, and 53 percent
activities.
expect conditions to be about the
More than eight in
same a year from now.
10 members said AWB’s
lobbying on behalf of
Seventy-eight percent said
business is effective.
government regulation on their
That ’s gratifying to
business had increased in the last
hear. And a good thing,
five years, up from 73 percent who
considering the amount
gave that answer in an April
o f wo r k t h a t ’s t o b e
2006 survey.
done.
spring 2012
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