Things aren’t getting better.

The State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council director late this afternoon issued an updated version of an earlier March economic forecast.

Said Arun Raha, executive director, “Compared to the preliminary forecast, our updated Washington economic forecast is generally weaker, as a result of the weaker national economic forecast.”

He offered that the recently signed economic stimulus package “has less funding for infrastructure than assumed in the preliminary forecast. This change reduced the Washington construction forecast. On the other hand, the new forecast also reflects higher spending for the Hanford cleanup than was assumed in February.”

Some of the revised numbers, compared to figures in the preliminary March forecast:

• Real personal income will increase 3.4 percent in the first quarter, down from 4.3 percent. In the fourth quarter, real personal income will dip 0.2 percent, down from a predicted increase of 0.2 percent.

• The unemployment rate in the state will increase to 8.3 percent in the state in the first quarter, not 7.8 percent. By the third quarter the rate will rise to 9.6 percent, and in the fourth quarter 9.9 percent, and by the first quarter of 2010, 10 percent; not 8.9 percent, 9.2 percent and 9.3 percent as predicted on March 6.

• Construction employment will dip by 13 percent in the first quarter, not 11.6 percent. By the third quarter, construction employment will be down by 14.3 percent, not 14 percent; and by the fourth quarter down by 9.9 percent, not 8.9 percent.

• Housing permits will be down 28.9 percent in the first quarter, not 22.8 percent. By the fourth quarter this year, however, housing permits will increase by 116.3 percent, not 105.4 percent.

For a look at the full updated report, visit www.erfc.wa.gov/pubs/p0309.pdf

South Hill Mall's owners did something extraordinary Thursday especially considering the state of the economy.

In a ceremony near the Macy's store at the Puyallup Mall, they literally razed the ceiling of the mall to mark the beginning of a multi-million-dollar renovation project.

That process will include new floor and ceiling treatments, skylighting, new entrance features, signage and soft-seating area and a renovated food court with a stone fireplace.

The renovation contractor is S.D. Deacon Co. Crews will be working at night to avoid disrupting shoppers.

The project is scheduled for completion in early November.

Mall owner Cafaro of Youngstown, Ohio is financing the renovation of the two decades-old mall with internally generated funds.

American consumers, you just aren’t buying enough stuff. It was you who brought us through the last economic downturn - but this time around, you’re saving too much money. You’re being too responsible by not throwing your hard-earned cash around on unnecessary goods.

And it’s not just the American economy that is suffering because of your thrift.

Consider this report from today’s Cargo Business News, which says the
South China Port of Yantian is flooded with 400,000 empty containers that are stressing the facility’s storage capacity.

A similar situation, the report continues, is confounding the Port of Hong Kong. Containerized transfers fell 17.5 percent in February at the first port, and Hong Kong’s dropped 24.1 percent in December, and 23.2 percent in January, according to the newsletter, quoting a story in the South China Post.

The Hong Kong-based consultancy Transport Trackers has revised a recent forecast, and now predicts an 11 percent drop for the Asia-Europe container trade, and a 9 percent fall for the trans-Pacific container trade.

Were these typical times, many of those idle containers would be filled with stuff bound for the Port of Tacoma.

I’ll check my calendar. When’s Spend Money Like a Drunken Sailor Once Again Day?

More shakeups in the retail industry came today as a Canadian co-operative announced acquisition of 15 Pacific Northwest Sportsman's Warehouse stores including locations in Federal Way and Lacey.

The sale by Utah-based Sportsman's Warehouse was part of a two-part strategy for the sporting goods chain to weather the economic recession.

The other half of that plan calls for liquidation and shutdown of 23 other Sportsman's Warehouses in 17 states. The two actions will leave Sportsman's with 29 stores.

The 15 acquired this week by Alberta's UFA Co-operative Ltd. include Washington stores in Federal Way, Lacey, Silverdale, Burlington, Kennewick, Vancouver and Spokane.

The Midvale, Utah chain is struggling to find $30 million in new equity funding and to secure new financing to build inventories.

The company thought it found a savior in UFA when the Canadian co-op last fall agreed to explore acquiring 80 percent of Sportsman's.

The store sales and liquidations will clear $100 million in debt from Sportsman's balance sheet, the company said.

In the process, 2,000 Sportsman's workers will lose their jobs.

"Today we find ourselves in a very difficult spot," Sportman's Chairman Stuart Utgaard told the Salt Lake City Tribune. "It breaks our hearts to lay these people off because they all have mortgage and rent payments and car payments and have to buy groceries."

Changing economic conditions, however, dissuaded UFA from carrying through, the cooperative said. The company acquired the 15 Northwest stores in return for a previous loan it made to Sportman's.

UFA last year acquired a Canadian sporting goods chain as part of a strategic plan to broaden its market from petroleum and farm supplies to outdoor goods.

The new store owners have yet to announce their plans to rebrand the stores they've acquired.

The Sportsman's deal is the latest sign that the sporting goods business is suffering in the down economy. Oregon-based Joe's sporting goods chain last week filed for bankruptcy reorganization.

Delta Air Lines says it's adjusting its international flying capacity downward this year to match the unpleasant realities of a market that has seen a sharp drop in foreign travel.

The company, in a letter to employees and frequent fliers worldwide, hasn't yet said what routes its will cancel, which it will make seasonal and which it will fly less frequently or with smaller aircraft.

We've got a call in to see if any of the routes from Sea-Tac Airport will be reduced. Delta inherited several overseas routes from Sea-Tac from Northwest Airlines when the two merged last year.

Delta has already canceled its Seattle-London flight and has said it won't begin Seattle-Beijing service on its original schedule.

Figures from January show the former Northwest international flights from Sea-Tac that month showed a 16.78 percent increase in passengers over the same month in 2008. That figure, however, includes eight days of the London route, which wasn't flying during January 2008.

Delta, formerly Northwest, flies from Sea-Tac to Tokyo and Amsterdam non-stop.

Earlier this week, Seattle's oldest international carrier, SAS, said it will halt service from here to Copenhagen July 31.

Another week has passed without new order activity for Boeing's Commercial Airplanes Group.

That keeps Boeing's 2009 order book in the red by 10 aircraft more than two months into the year.

The same is true for Airbus which has recorded eight more order cancellations than orders this year for its commercial aircraft.

Boeing year-to-date tally looks like this:

Orders: 19 737s, 3 777s.
Cancellations: 32 787s.

The slow orders and creeping cancellations are courtesy of a world economic meltdown that has pinched off business travel and kept leisure travelers sitting on their wallets.

Scratch the ambitious plan to get a float for kayaks and other human-powered craft installed by early spring in the 21st Park on the Thea Foss Waterway.

That plan, which involved a hurry-up trip through the permit bureaucracy to get that float installed on the west side of the Foss south of the cable-stayed bridge at South 21st Street, proved just too daunting to get done quickly.

But the Thea Foss Development Authority has a consolation prize for kayakers.

The authority now plans to install kayak storage racks and a launching float in a boat slip at the existing Dock Street Marina farther north on the waterway, says authority deputy director Su Dowie.

Dowie said that project depends in part on the Army Corps of Engineers granting an extension of an existing permit to allow the float construction in the next few months.

The substitute project doesn't require any new pilings or anchors to disturb the bottom of the waterway, a concern during the so-called "fish window" when juvenile salmon are growing in the waterway.

With any luck, said Dowie, the project could be ready for use by mid-to-late summer.

The project would give kayak owners racks to rent to store their boats and a locked gate to prevent thieves or vandals from reaching the area by land.

Meanwhile, the City of Tacoma will proceed on the float in 21st park, but with an extended completion date.