Tacoma’s construction employment in May continued to lag the construction employment a year ago, new figures from the construction industry show.

The area’s active construction workforce 18,300 in May this year compared with 19,000 last year, the Associated General Contractors said in a report released this week.

While that four percent drop was concerning, Tacoma’s construction job drop was a large as many cities in the country. Of the 337 cities in the AGC survey 294 had smaller construction workforces this year than last.

On that list Tacoma was the 81st with number 1, Columbus, Ohio, having the best results …

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Pierce County’s industrial space vacancies shrunk by 281,152 square feet in the second quarter, putting the county at the top of the heap in the Puget Sound area for industrial space leasing and sales.

That information comes from a report issued today by commercial real estate company Colliers International.

The real estate company reported that the industrial vacancy rate dropped from 9.1 percent a year ago in Pierce County to 8.36 percent now.

Pierce County’s square footage absorption was greater than any of the four other areas in the Puget Sound region, the report said.

Besides Pierce County, only King …

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Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber workers recognized its retired volunteers with a potluck lunch on Tuesday.

The volunteers are part of the United Way of Tacoma-Pierce County’s Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP).  The group helps out with chamber calendar mailing duties.

The chamber has about 1,300 members who pay dues to belong to the group. It is a not-for-profit entity based in downtown Tacoma at 950 Pacific Ave., Suite 300, in Tacoma. You can contact the chamber through its website at: www.tacomachamber.org/index.aspx

No one will be moving into a new Tacoma condo, but a Bellevue woman is $25,000 richer after the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts completed its raffle.

Sandra Kennewick of Bellevue was the top prizewinner Saturday, according to a news release from the center. She was awarded the top prize after the raffle didn’t sell enough tickets to “vest” the envisioned grand prize: a new condo at 505 Broadway. The center needed to sell 17,000 tickets to award it; it sold 2,894. It needed to sell 2,000 tickets to break even.

The Broadway Center launched the Tacoma Live Large …

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In a proposal that could have a major effect on waterborne trade between Tacoma and Alaska, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain has introduced legislation that would allow foreign vessels manned by foreign crews to carry goods between U.S. ports.

McCain’s legislation would repeal the Jones Act, which requires that goods moved between U.S. ports such as Tacoma and Anchorage be moved in ships built in the U.S. owned by Americans and manned by American crews.

By repealing the law, the costs of transporting goods to such isolated American states such as Alaska and Hawaii and the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, …

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Dallas-based Stevens Transport has announced it is ordering 500 heavy duty T700 trucks from Kirkland’s Kenworth Truck Co.

The T700 is Kenworth’s latest aerodynamic over-the-road truck. The truck is designed to cut both fuel use and emissions for its operators.

Stevens, a refrigerated transport carrier, has specified the trucks be equipped with a 75-inch aerodynamic sleeper cab and a 400-horsepower Cummins diesel engine.

Kenworth is a subsidiary of PACCAR Inc. of Bellevue. It has truck factories in Seattle, Renton, Ohio and Quebec, Canada.

A Middle Eastern aircraft leasing company, Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, is seeking to reschedule aircraft deliveries from both Boeing and its European rival, Airbus.

DAE has ordered a total of 218 aircraft from the two planemakers. One hundred of those planes are on order from Boeing.

French aviation sources said financial issues are causing the company to seeking delays in the deliveries of some of those aircraft or to ask some be reassigned to Dubai-based Emirates Airways.

Southwest Airlines will suspend its Seattle-Nashville non-stop service for the winter beginning Nov. 7, new schedules show.

Southwest in recent years has suspended its Nashville non-stop service from Sea-Tac during the winter months when tourist traffic is lower.

In other airline developments, SeaTac’s Alaska Airlines is dropping out of the highly competitive nonstop Portland-Denver market in early September. Four airlines, United, Frontier, Southwest and Alaska, now connect the two cities nonstop. Alaska, with just one non-stop flight a day, is the only one of those airlines without connecting flights beyond Denver.

Denver is a hub for both United …

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