Tacoma temporary staffing provider TrueBlue Inc. stayed profitable in the third quarter despite a 27 percent revenue drop compared with the third quarter of 2008.

The company today announced net income of $8.2 million for the quarter ending Sept. 25. That's 19 cents a share.

That income is about half the $16.3 million or 38 cents per share the staffing company made in the same quarter last year.

Revenues were $284.8 million compared with $387.9 million for the same period in 2008.

"Our strict cost management combined with ongoing stabilization in the same branch revenue drove our results this quarter," said TrueBlue Chief Executive Steve Cooper. The company's ongoing efforts to reduce is workers compensation costs also helped keep the company in the black, he said. TrueBlue has reduced workplace injuries by 60 percent over the last six years.

The downtown Tacoma-headquartered company has closed 155 branch offices and cut company-wide employment from 3,300 to less than 2,600 since the first of the year.

Management has trimmed other expenses by 30 percent, he said.

The company's results were about six cents a share better than its own predictions, said Chief Financial Officer Derrek Gafford. That improvement was the result of better-than-expected revenues, particularly from a single large customer whose need for temporary staffing has continued longer than expected.

The company's economy measures, said Cooper, have left TrueBlue, parent company of such brands as Labor Ready, Spartan Staffing, CLP Resources, Plane Techs and TLC, well-positioned to benefit from any upswing in business once business activity increases.

The company is beginning to see some freshening of demand in the Midwest where auto parts suppliers are ramping up their factories.

"It really started with Cash for Clunkers, but it's continued on after that," said Cooper.

The construction industry, a major source of demand for temporary help, is still ailing, company officials said.

The startup of some federal stimulus-funded projects will begin happening late this year and early next, said Cooper. Those projects may stimulate demand for more workers.

Those stimulus projects have been slower to leave the starting line than the government had hoped, but with preliminary planning and permitting done, they should begin moving forward, he said.

Boeing needs to bring more of its engineering work back inside Boeing, the company's chief executive said today after announcing a $1.6 billion loss for the third quarter.

Jim McNerney said the company went too far in attempting to develop the revolutionary 787 Dreamliner while also installing a new design and production scheme that relied heavily on outside suppliers.

Much of the company-wide quarterly loss was driven by $2.5 billion in new costs associated with design and production problems on the Dreamliner. The company also took $1 billion in additional losses on the development and production of a second new project, a next generation 747.

"The industry got a little overheated," said McNerney addressing the root of the 787 and 747 problems. "Baselines set up were very aggressive."

Attempting to build a new plane with pioneering composite technology while simultaneously pushing major design and construction responsibility out to partners was "a bridge too far," he said.

"We need to bring more of the engineering, especially as the systems level, back into Boeing," he told reporters and analysts in a conference call.

The Dreamliner is now nearly 2 1/2 years late in flying for the first time, and the 747-8's first flight schedule recently slipped into the first quarter of 2010.

Boeing's losses for the quarter amounted to $2.23 a share. The 787 and 747 charges alone amounted to a $3.59 a share. Good performance in other parts of the company blunted those Dreamliner and 747 losses.

"The fundamental operating engine of the company is running well," McNerney noted.

While some airlines have deferred or canceled orders in the first nine months of the year, the commercial airplanes side of the company still has a backlog of orders -- $254 billion -- that represent more than seven years of production, he said.

The company has no plans to reduce the production pace of its bread-and-butter 737 at its Renton plant, he said, despite some deferrals by some customers.

Boeing will continue laying off workers to adjust to changing demands in other sectors, particularly in defense where the government is tightening up programs and in the service sector where airlines are cutting back on expenses, the Boeing CEO said.

Union workers at Boeing's helicopter plant near Philadelphia have ratified a new contract that will give them annual raises totaling 15 percent along with $7,000 in lump sum payments over five years.

Member of the United Aerospace Workers Union are set to receive a 3 percent raise in the contract's first year, a two percent raise in the second year, 3 percent raises in the third and fourth years and a 4 percent raise in the fifth year of the contract. Those same workers will receive a lump sum payment of $3,500 the first year and payments of $1,500 in the fourth year and $2,000 in year five.

The union represents 1,789 workers in the company's Ridley Park, Pa. helicopter plant. The agreement was reached Oct. 14, and workers voted on it last week.

The plant with more than 5,400 employees produces the CH-47 Chinook twin-rotor helicopter and the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

Bellevue's Paccar is closing a strike-plagued Peterbuilt truck plant in Denton, Tenn. and consolidating all Peterbilt heavy-duty truck production at a non-union plant in Denton, Texas.

The company said the weak market for heavy-duty Class * trucks is at the root of the closure, not the plant's labor problems.

The Tennessee plant hasn't produced a truck since the summer of 2008 when the United Auto Workers and Paccar couldn't agree on a new contract.

The Tennessee plant has endured strikes in 1992, 1998 and 2002.

The market for heavy-duty trucks has fallen to about half the number the trucking industry bought in 2005 and 2006.

Workers' compensation premiums will increase by 7.6 percent next year, the state Department of Labor and Industries announced today.

While the increase was less than the 15-to-20 percent increase L&I had predicted, small businesses say they're not happy with the increase.

The National Federal of Independent Business, meeting this week in Walla Walla, called the change a "whopping tax increase."

"It's almost immoral. I don't hear them cutting anything. Maybe they're not filling vacancies, but I don't see them cutting anything," said Chuck Mott, owner of Innovac of Edmonds. "This is another additional cost coming at a time when we've already lost a great deal of money," he said.

L&I Director Judy Schurke said the increase was driven by factors out of the department's control: reduced investment returns, less income because of reduced workforce hours and fewer jobs to which injured workers can return.

Health care inflation of 8.5 percent also played a role in forcing the rates upward, she said.

The rates will increase on average by about four cents an hour bringing in $120 million more to the fund annually.

Workers compensation collect insurance premiums to pay workers' medical costs and replacement wages for job-related injuries.

Small business owners said they're already suffering from reduced demands and lower sales.

"Every time L&I raises our taxes, it affects my ability as a small businss employer to increase wages and benefits and threatens job security,' said Scottie Marabel, owner of Bellevue's Pinnacle Marketing Inc.

Sea-Tac Airport, which has imposed standards on taxi drivers for years, now is doing the same for limo drivers serving the airport.

The airport now is requiring limo drivers serving the airport to pass a multi-part screening and training regime in order to serve the airport.

The program includes:

* Passing drug screening and criminal background checks
* Successful completion of a driver training course
* A basic health examination
* Service and transportation training

The airport says some 500 limousine services pick up arriving travelers at the airport. Drivers without the required For Hire or Chauffeur license will no longer be able to pick up Sea-Tac passengers.

The Boeing Co. recorded orders for 11 aircraft in the week ending Tuesday, raising its total of new orders for the year to 161.

But subtracting cancellations, the company's backlog of orders has risen by only 70 aircraft in 2009.

Unidentified customers last week canceled orders for two 777s while ordering 11 new 737s.

With just 70 net orders this year, new aircraft orders this year are as low as they have been anytime in the last three decades are Boeing. The company has a backlog of some 3,500 aircraft, most of them ordered before the recession hit 18 months ago.

Engineers working in Boeing's former Wichita, Kan. plant have rejected a second contract offer from Boeing's successor there, Spirit Aerosystems.

Ninety-three percent of Boeing engineers voting on Spirit's contract proposal said "no" to the latest contract offer. Ninety-two percent voted to authorize a strike at Spirit.

The engineers, represented by the same union, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, that represent Boeing engineers in the Puget Sound area, said the Spirit offer was unsatisfactory.

The union said the Spirit contract proposal would double medical premiums eliminate minimum wage increase and takes away overtime pay for the first four hours a week.

The engineers rejected a prior contract offer in July.

The union said it will ask to bring a federal mediator into the talks.

Boeing's woes with the development of the fuel-efficient 787 Dreamliner came home to roost today with an anticipated $2.5 billion charge against third-quarter earnings.

The news of the huge charge-off came as Boeing announced that the first 787, fresh from modifications of its wing-to-body joint, will fly late this year.

If the 787 flies in December for the first time, its initial flight will be nearly two and a half years behind its original schedule.

The company said it will be taking the charge against earnings of $2.21 a share in the third quarter because the first three test aircraft have no market value because of all of the retrofits and unique changes made to them.

The fourth through sixth test aircraft, subject to less rework than the first three, will likely be sold in the executive aircraft market, said Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group President Scott Carson in an early morning conference call.

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If you’ve ever wanted to ride in a forklift rodeo, do a high-angle rescue or somehow participate in climbing a very tall pole, you’ll get your chance come Sept. 7 and 8 at the 58th annual Governor’s Industrial Safety and Health Conference, slated for the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center.

The annual event draws several thousand workers, managers and vendors for “two days of training and education, providing the latest tools, technologies and strategies for workplace safety and health,” according to the co-sponsoring agency, the state Department of Labor & Industries.

Among the offerings this year are dozens of events, demonstrations and seminars including “Compressed Gas Safety,” “Fall Protection,” “Make Investigating Accidents Easy,” “Silica Exposure,” and “Tunneling Hazards.” The conference includes an extensive trade show, and will also feature the Governor’s Lifesaving Awards.

The cost is $140, with discounts for students and groups. For more information visit www.wagovconf.org.

Airport Jobs, a free employment service for Sea-Tac Airport and its related businesses, is reporting visits to its Web site rose 42 percent in June compared with with same month last year.

But just 61 applicants were hired through the service in June 2009, 46 percent fewer than in the same month last year.

That's the bad news. The good news is that the hiring pace has freshened since it hit a low point in February, the airport reports.

To view jobs available at the airport and among nearby airport-related businesses visit the Airport Jobs Web site or call 206-835-7501.

So many people showed up today to apply for jobs at the Puyallup Fair, that many were asked to come back on Thursday.

Interviewing for 3,000 jobs started at 8:30 a.m. and by mid morning at least that many were in line, according to a news release sent by the fair.

"Due to the inability to process that many applicants in one day, many of those people who showed up were asked to return tomorrow. Fair officials cut off the line at a location where WorkSource Employment Office staff could process those applicants today," the release said.

Interviewing will resume again on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. at the WorkSource Employment Office on the north side of the facility.

Seasonal jobs are available in a variety of departments such as food service, retail sales, game and booth operators, barn workers and much more. Wages begin at $8.55 per hour, with some paying more based on duties and skills required.

To qualify, prospective employees must be at least 16 years old and be able to provide picture ID as well as proof of legal right to work, such as a social security card or alien registration card. The Fair will not accept applicants by phone or e-mail.