Governor-elect Bob Ferguson recently announced the appointment to lead the agency, which manages a budget of $7.9 billion and administers more than 100 programs in the areas of housing, energy, community and economic development, local government and business services.

As a new year approaches, the region’s economy appears to be holding steady, with a bit of a slowdown typical for the winter season. 

The economic development that’s been synonymous with the Tri-Cities in recent years is primed to continue, experts say.

Despite the worst of the health crisis having passed, one of its enduring legacies is the sharp rise in labor costs.

The latest economic data for the greater Tri-Cities yields a mixed bag of progress and slowdown. 

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The pace of job expansion in the Tri-Cities region has exceeded that of Washington state overall in the past decade.

With a robust population forecast on the horizon and one that is aging, the Tri-Cities will continue to see strong demand for the services of the various industries of the health and social assistance sector.

Expectations can shift a market in the short term, but reality often will right the ship. The expectation heading into 2024 was that borrowing rates would decrease, but the reality is there hasn’t been much of a shift.

At midyear, it appears the Tri-Cities economy is holding steady.