TrueBlue News Release (09/30/13)

TrueBlue Inc. has announced that it has acquired substantially all of the assets of the Work Connection, a light industrial staffing provider with 37 branches located predominantly in the Midwest. TrueBlue chief executive officer Steve Cooper said that TWC’s operations will be merged with those of Spartan Staffing during the fourth quarter of this year to expand TrueBlue’s light industrial service line. Cooper expects long-term growth for the blue-collar staffing industry and said TrueBlue will continue to expand through a combination of acquisitions and growth from existing service lines.

Los Angeles Times (09/30/13) Don Lee

The nation’s economy has been expanding for more than four years, but the recovery from the Great Recession has been repeatedly held back by political budget battles. Many analysts forecast that a two-week partial government shutdown would shave 0.3 to 0.4 of a percentage point from economic growth in the fourth quarter, mostly stemming from lost pay for hundreds of thousands of furloughed federal workers. Longer downtime likely would mean increasingly larger and escalating problems for the economy, including greater volatility in financial markets.

Wall Street Journal (09/30/13) Ruth Simon

Many small businesses, concerned about rising costs in 2014 due to the federal health care law, are taking insurers up on offers to renew their current coverage early to lock in lower rates. A survey of 881 firms by the Wall Street Journal and Vistage International reveals that close to 33% will renew their health coverage earlier than usual. However, regulators in Illinois, New York, Rhode Island, and Washington have stopped insurers from renewing small businesses early as a means of skirting the law.

Meanwhile, a representative sampling of rates for plans to be sold on the federal small-business exchange will be issued by the federal government today.