European planemaker Airbus said today it will deliver a total of 33 of its giant A380 airliners to airlines this year and next instead of the 38 it had promised.

The new figure came after Airbus restudied its schedule for producing the 550-passenger jets.

The European company is making a transition to a new generation of wiring in the A380, a process that requires training and acclimation time for assembly line workers.

The A380 is already two years behind its original delivery schedule because of problems with the first generation of wiring in the airliners.

Northrop/EADS, the surprise winner of a $40 billion contract to furnish the Air Force with a fleet of new aerial tankers, plans to break ground for a new plant in Mobile, Ala.

Despite The Boeing Co.'s appeal of the contract award, Northrop/EADS, a consortium of U.S.-based Northrop Grumman and Europe's EADS, has planned a formal groundbreaking for June 28.

Northrop/EADS will do final assembly of the KC-45 airborne tanker at the new facility. The tanker is based on Airbus' A330 commercial jet.

EADS, Airbus's parent company, has promised to build A330 freighters at the Alabama plant if it receives the Air Force contract.

Boeing has asked the General Accounting Office to set aside the contract contending that its KC-30, based on its Everett-built 767, better matches the Air Force's requirements.

The Boeing Co. has told its biggest union that it wants a separate contract for its 750 workers at its Wichita, Kan. plant.

Those workers are now covered under the same contract as workers in Puget Sound and Oregon Boeing plants.

The company told the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers that it wants a separate pact for workers in Kansas.

The company contends that because living costs and wages are lower in Kansas than in the Pacific Northwest, the company needs a contract that better suits local conditions in the Sunflower State.

Boeing's request came as the company and the IAM began formal negotiations over a new contract. The present contract expires in early September.

The union said it was taking the company's request under advisement.

The union members make a base wage now averaging $27 an hour.

Pierce County's economy remained lukewarm in April.

"We're not doing badly, but we've done better in the past," said Paul Turek, the Tacoma economist for the state's Employment Security Department.

The county unemployment rate dipped from 5.8 percent in March to 5.3 percent last month.

But at the same time, the labor force – the number of people employed or unemployed and looking for work – shrunk.

That could mean that some job seekers stopped looking for work or that positions are becoming harder to find, Turek said.

The county added 1,100 jobs over the month and 3,300 jobs over the year.

"We had a month comparable to last year's, but last year's numbers weren't great," Turek said.

The construction industry posted the largest year-over-year decline in jobs - down 1,100 since last April.

Government and educational and health services jobs recorded some of the biggest gains, adding 1,900 and 1,500 jobs over the year respectively.

The pace of year-over-year job growth in Pierce County remains below 2 percent, a bit slower than most would like to see.

"When we get below 2 percent growth, though there's jobs being added, they are generally not being added a pace to hire everyone that's looking," Turek said.

And when the county numbers are adjusted for seasonal fluctuations in hiring (to account for things like summer hiring or winter slowdowns), Pierce County actually lost jobs over the month, though still gained jobs over the year.

But, Turek, said it could certainly be worse – and it is worse in many other parts of the country.

"I'm keeping my fingers crossed," he said. "I still think we are going to sidestep a great part of this (national economic slowdown) and hopefully rebound in the second half."

The state reported a mixed bag of employment figures: the unemployment rate dipped as the state lost jobs over the month.

Seasonally adjusted employment decreased by 1,800 people from March to April, though grew by 46,300 over the year.

The jobs loss represents a sliver of total employment in the state, though it is the second consecutive month-over-month decline.

David Wallace, an ESD economist, said there's not enough evidence to suggest the state in is a recession.

The state unemployment rate dipped from 5.2 in March to 4.6 in April. The seasonally adjusted rate was 4.7 percent.

A Canadian p.r. agency is out this morning with a report on “what could be the latest trend in weddings.”

It was “Eco Elegance” personified as Barb McKechnie and Jeff Boschert tied the knot (which one hopes is not itself recyclable) at The Rise, a 735-acre golf and winery resort near Vernon, British Columbia, where housing units are heated and cooled with a ground-source geothermal system.

According to Canada’s dHz Media, the wedding featured:
• No limousines. Everybody rode hybrids.
• Wherever possible, all waste produced was recycled or composted.
• Wedding favors – wooden cutlery with guests’ names and the wedding date burned on – were recyclable. (Why someone would want to toss a wedding favor into the recycling stream was not discussed.)
• Invitations were printed on recycled paper.

Do I sniff an Eco Elegance public-relations gap between golf courses in British Columbia ourselves? Is this an opportunity for University Place’s own Chambers Bay to begin tooting a new kind of horn – a green horn?

For instance, at Chambers Bay:
• The land itself is recycled, having once been used as a sand and gravel strip mine.
• What could be more eco-friendly than a sewage treatment plant right next door?
• No high-carbon-footprint golf carts or other vehicles (except for ambulances retrieving golfers who find the course too difficult for their hearts) are allowed on the course.
• Traffic is so jammed on a nice day that people are forced to walk or ride bicycles to get where they’re going.

Fewer people stayed in Tacoma-area hotels and motels last March than did a year before – but guests paid more.

With 67.3 percent of rooms occupied in March, Pierce County nearly led the state in the decline of occupied rooms, down 13.6 percent. Only in Everett and Snohomish County, where the rate fell 14 percent, was the decline greater.

Among nine regions in the state, only SeaTac and Southcenter hotels saw an increase in occupancy, up 5.2 percent to 75.9 percent of rooms taken.

Statewide, 71.5 percent of rooms were occupied – down 0.8 percent from March 2007, according to a monthly report by Bellevue hospitality consultant Wolfgang Rood.

The average daily room rate in Pierce County, $85.66, was up 13.5 percent over the year before. Although all other regions of the state saw increases in rates, only Bellingham, up 10.3 percent, came close to matching the increase in Pierce County.

The average cost of a room statewide, according to Rood, was $125.50 in March, up 6.1 percent from $117.27 a year before. Downtown Seattle, the perennial state leader for rates, enjoyed a 3.2 percent increase to $164.56.

As the Port of Tacoma was considering televising and web streaming its meetings last year, a few commissioners questioned whether there'd be much of an audience.

Well the first numbers are in.

About 200 people have watched the port meetings live via the port's Web site since the port began web streaming them mid-March.

Web video of the March 20 and April 17 meetings was requested another 840 and 200 times respectively.

The TV numbers are a bit lower.

About 17 people watched the April 17 meeting on demand, according to the Click! Network and 251 people have tuned into televised port programs including the Port Report, a port history video and a Tall Ships recap.

The port commission in December approved a $170,000 contract with San Francisco-based Granicus to provide the Web streaming equipment and training, and help coordinate the televising of the commission meetings.

Hilda Stevens, Granicus' regional sales manager, said she considers the number of people watching the port live online pretty good, especially if you consider the likelihood of fitting all those people in a meeting room.

She said the number of viewers typically grows in the first months of Web streaming as word gets out that the content is available.

Rod Koon, port spokesman, said he's encouraged that people are watching commission meetings and other content produced by the port.

"The main thing is that this stuff that is available and readily accessible for people who want to see it," Koon said today.

You can find port commission meetings online at www.portoftacoma.com.

Next up: The port plans to relaunch its Web site in June.

We're drinking less than expected, buying fewer cigarettes and not replacing our tables and chairs. Maybe it's all the aspirin for all those headaches, but drugs stores are doing better. Not so with real estate. Not so at all.

Without including special factors, state tax collections between April 11 and May 10 were down 3.7 percent – or $43.7 million – from predictions, and are down 0.5 percent – $13.6 million – for the three months since February.

The state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council has released its latest figures, which show Revenue Act receipts down 0.7 percent over a year ago, This was the first year-over-year decline in receipts since March 2003.

Preliminary data for the latest period show tax payments by firms in the retail trade sector were 4.5 percent below a year ago.

Among the sector decliners:
• Motor vehicle dealers, -13.1 percent;
• Electronic and appliance stores, -4.7 percent;
• Building materials/garden supply retailers, -6.9 percent;
• Furniture stores, -9.1 percent;
• Food and beverage stores, -3.4 percent;
• Apparel and accessory stores, -2.1 percent.

Two retailing sectors reported good gains:
• Drug and health stores, +8.3 percent;
• Gas stations and convenience stores, +7.5 percent

Among non-retailing sectors, construction reported a 2.3 percent increase. Payments from utilities declined 2.3 percent and businesses in the finance and insurance sector reported a 3.6 percent decline.

Real estate excise tax payments were $7.6 million less than expected; property tax was $3.9 million less; cigarette tax was $346,000 less and liquor taxes were $683,000 below expectations, the department said.

Without figuring for special circumstances, taxable real estate activity in April was 34.2 percent below the level a year ago, which represents a slight improvement from a 37.5 percent decline the month before. On a year-over-year basis, real estate activity has declined 16 of the last 18 months. In March, the number of real estate transactions was 27.4 percent below a year ago, while the average value per transaction declined 13.9 percent, the department said.