The good news is Washington’s economy picked up some steam in January, adding an estimated 12,400 jobs – the first monthly gain since November 2008, according to our state's Employment Security Dept (ESD).
But the no-so-good news is our state unemployment rate remained relatively flat in January, inching up to an estimated 9.3 percent from December’s revised rate of 9.2 percent. December’s rate was earlier estimated at 9.5 percent, but was revised downward after more analysis. That is 359,500 people in our state without jobs.
The bad news is Clark County shed 500 jobs in January while the state as a whole added jobs indicating that hiring in the Vancouver area will continue to lag behind other regions.
Preliminary estimates place the county’s January unemployment rate at 14.1 percent, up from the revised December rate of 13.7 percent and a year-ago rate of 11.6 percent, according the ESD report released on March 2 and published in today's The Columbian. That is 31,120 people who live across the Columbia River from Portland are without jobs.
The real, real bad news is 32 of 39 Washington counties report double digit unemployment rates with the highest rate in Ferry County at 16.2 percent and the lowest in Pullman area where WSU is located which is 6.2 percent.
The messages are clear:
- Job 1: Fix the economy and put people back to work.
- While there are encouraging signs on the job front, the recovery is fragile and our elected officials from President Obama and Congress, to Governor Gregoire and legislators, and local elected officials must be careful not to snuff out the embers of economic recovery.
- Allow the private sector to recover, provide jobs and needed tax revenues. Increase state and local revenues through a return to prosperity, no increasing taxes to backfill sagging tax collections.
Don C. Brunell, President (DonB@awb.org)
