For auto sector, brakes gave out in 2008

Boatwerks Waterfront Restaurant will temporarily close for February and March due in part to the poor economy.

The Holland Area Chamber of Commerce wants the city to give special consideration to local vendors when hiring contractors or buying equipment.

Entrepreneurial training available

Lakeshore Advantage, the economic development organization that helps businesses grow in the Holland, Zeeland and Saugatuck areas, is sponsoring Venture Forward, an entrepreneurial training series to keep dislocated workers in the area. More than 25 individuals participated in the first session and a waiting list for the next session already being formed. The cost of the program is being covered through the financial assistance of Ottawa County Michigan Works. Local workers who have lost their jobs due to the area’s larger employers downsizing are eligible for full scholarships.

The Venture Forward sessions are Monday afternoons, 2 to 5 p.m. at Lakeshore Advantage, 201 West Washington, Suite 410, in Zeeland, Feb. 9 through March 30. To register and for more information, visit www.misbtdc.org/training or call (616) 331-7370.

For foreign professionals in the United States, the rising unemployment rate is especially daunting.

Laid-off foreign workers are scrambling for temporary visas and seeking advice from immigration attorneys about how long they can legally stay in the country while hunting for jobs.

The grim outlook for the economy was affirmed Tuesday by separate reports showing consumer confidence and housing prices have plummeted to all-time lows.

Illustrating the depths of the recession, consumer confidence hit a more than 40-year low in December in the face of rising layoffs, while home prices in 10 major U.S. cities dropped in October by the sharpest amount in 21 years.

Company officials aren’t letting on how many Hamilton Lumber employees will be let go as part of a merger with Zeeland Lumber and Supply Co.

The Treasury Department said Monday that it will provide $5 billion to GMAC Financial Services LLC, the ailing financing arm of General Motors Corp., from the $700 billion bank rescue program.

Mickey Truong is grateful for every day he has in America.

When he was 5, the Holland resident left Vietnam and ended up in a refugee camp in Malaysia. He said he and his two uncles were fortunate to be picked by missionaries and taken by boat to America.

Truong got married and has worked many different jobs since then, most recently as a manager for Microtel Inn in Holland.

Once a household name and reputedly the key to great fortune for modern salesmen hoping to live out a Horatio Alger myth, the Amway brand faded from the American market years ago, tarnished by legal and regulatory problems.

The direct-seller of everything from health and beauty items to household cleaners repeatedly fought allegations that it was a pyramid scheme. The company also paid $20 million in fines in a Canadian criminal fraud case in 1983.