Business Watch

The state’s smallest businesses are growing in number. Now ‘solopreneurs’ hope to grow their sales during the holiday sales season that is expected to be robust.

Thanksgiving Eve is the biggest money maker of the year for bars, as friends gather before the family events that follow. Bar and restaurant managers say they don’t know what to expect Wednesday as state virus cases spike.

University of Michigan forecast is full of optimism. But inflation and supply issues could present roadblocks.

Demographic trends, accelerated by the pandemic, show that businesses are going to have to look to technology to solve the long-term problem.

The high cost of childcare and limited state aid has shrunk the workforce. In a rare area of bipartisan consensus, Democrats and Republicans are working to boost pay and subsidies.

Fewer workers mean big changes across Michigan, as hourly wages reach new peaks to lure employees. But people also want more from how they earn a living, like flexibility and satisfaction. The result is creating new pressures that won’t end soon.

The rules announced Thursday affect 84 million workers nationwide. Combined with other rules, two-thirds of the nation’s workforce must either be vaccinated or face mandatory testing.

Businesses with federal contracts have to show all workers are vaccinated or qualify for limited exemptions. The impact goes into every county in the state, and businesses large and small.

Half of the state’s workforce will be under a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for businesses over 100 people once federal rules are finalized. But it’s been a long wait, and a new coalition wants the White House to cancel the plan.

Michigan families, along with businesses that depend on Canadian visitors, hailed the Biden administration’s announcement that vaccinated Canadians can once again cross into the U.S. beginning in November.

Latino and Hispanic businesses received fewer loans in the past decade and received less help during the pandemic. The West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s financial literacy program is meant to build business skills.

The state wants to be a leader in vehicle electrification, but it wasn’t considered for Ford’s record-setting battery manufacturing investment. That leaves some weighing what the state needs to change to be competitive.

Even big schools like MSU are closing cafeterias, altering menus to items that require less labor and asking administrators to help serve. Even the hallowed soft-serve ice cream machine is not immune. Welcome to college life in 2021.

Henry Ford Health System expects 150 nurses from the Philippines to start work in 2022, but it could use more. Other medical centers say they will explore talent searches overseas, which means navigating immigration policies.

The governor on Wednesday announced a plan to combat ‘range anxiety.by making Lake Michigan an electric vehicle-ready highway, and a separate initiative to train Michigan workers for new jobs.

Already dealing with pandemic fallout, businesses now must navigate the tricky economic and political waters of a federal vaccine-or-test requirement.

The southeast Michigan city has been under a state of emergency while investigators try to understand the circumstances and lapses that led to the spill, and assess any lingering health risks from the chemicals entering Flat Rock’s sewer system.

You failed,’ a lawmaker tells the acting director of the Unemployment Insurance Agency, which has had a host of problems during the pandemic.

Supply shortages and fewer workers are stretching some of the largest companies in the state. But overall, most have returned — or burned past — 2019 sales totals for the second three months of the year.

“People are at their wits’ end” when they learn how the pandemic has impacted what refrigerators, washers or other products are available, and how soon the store can get them. Customer flexibility can speed the process.