Business Watch

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.

Federal unemployment benefits are expiring Sept. 4 in the state, ending payments worth about a combined $283 million to workers not eligible for Michigan’s regular unemployment program.

A June letter confused and terrified nearly 700,000 jobless residents who were told they might have to repay benefits, according to testimony Tuesday at a House Oversight Committee meeting. It’s just the latest misstep by the state unemployment agency.

The hats are one of the most recognizable made-in-Michigan products, but the company says it needs other products to sustain business. It’s growth is an example of a U.P. company that’s adapting and staying relevant to younger consumers.

A competition for free rent attracted 58 applicants seeking to open businesses in downtown Lansing. Now the winner is preparing to open this fall, bringing a new business model — kids cooking classes — to the business district.

Customers are ready to spend, but the state’s hospitality businesses can’t operate at 100 percent, according to a new industry survey. They’re ‘leaving money on the table’ instead of rebuilding lost revenue.

For the first time in decades, Kent County is luring more residents from Chicago than it is losing. That helps explain why it’s one of few areas of Michigan that is gaining population.

Maintain the car you have, experts say. Production slowdowns are picking up this summer as the global microchip shortage keeps squeezing the auto industry.

Cities statewide have sought to increase the number of people living in their downtowns. They see a new option now that empty office space is increasing due to the pandemic.