BusinessNovember 17, 2011

Sit at my desk for not very long and you will hear the following rumor:

An economic development organization has a lead on an incredible company that's going to relocate to the area and hire hundreds of people. 

It would be wonderful to watch that scenario unfold. But in more than a decade of being the Tribune's business reporter, I've never seen it.

The reality of job growth is it usually happens silently and incrementally with employers who are already here. 

This week Decagon Devices joined the list of companies that fell into that latter category. The maker of scientific instruments in Pullman revealed its staff has increased from about 45 to 100 people in about five years. The business is confident enough about its prospects that it's nearly doubling its building.

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Decagon Devices can now place itself among heavy hitters like ATK in Lewiston and Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories in Pullman that have prospered in a similar gradual fashion.

The upward trend at Decagon Devices didn't catch me entirely by surprise. They've been on my radar for years. You can read this week's update and some of my previous stories here here and here.

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