The Columbian | Serving Clark County, Washington

Clark County shed 500 jobs in January while the state as a whole added jobs for the first time since November 2008, indicating that hiring here 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 to a report issued Tuesday by the Washington state Employment Security Department.

About 12,400 seasonally-adjusted jobs were created in Washington in a range of industries, from retail and hospitality to construction and manufacturing.

“This is very encouraging news,” said Dave Wallace, interim state economist. “But I remain cautiously optimistic as there is still a certain amount of turbulence, and any recovery is bound to remain uneven.”

Oregon also enjoyed a modest boost in January, adding about 1,100 jobs in its first seasonally-adjusted gain since February 2008, according to the Oregon Employment Department. The state’s unemployment rate, however, stayed virtually unchanged in January from the previous two months at 10.7 percent.

In Washington, the uptick in jobs wasn’t enough to absorb all the workers re-entering the work force, however. The statewide unemployment rate was 9.3 percent, up slightly from the revised 9.2 percent in December and 7.5 percent a year ago.

Clark County’s jobless rate has followed a sawtooth pattern in the past year, rising and falling a few percentage points each month. January followed that pattern, consistent with recent predictions that unemployment here will stay high well into 2010, even as the state and national economies improve, said Scott Bailey, Southwest Washington regional economist.

“The housing market is still in the dumps, foreclosures are going to pick up, consumer spending is going to be weak,” Bailey said.

An estimated 31,120 county residents were out of work in January out of a total work force of 221,360. That’s compared with 29,960 out of work in December. In all, 2,000 more workers were left job hunting one month later. That includes residents who weren’t previously counted as unemployed but who have since re-entered the work force. Seasonally adjusted, the number is closer to 500 residents out of work.

Three sectors suffered the most job losses month-over-month. Construction lost 500 jobs, or about 100 more than usual seasonal layoffs, according to Bailey. Retail lost 600 jobs in January, which is in line with a typical post-holiday season. And transportation, warehousing and utilities lost 200 jobs, in part because businesses cut their inventory and needed less storage space.

Bailey speculates that some retail shops that had been holding out in hopes of a holiday boost may have closed after disappointing fourth-quarter sales.

Similarly, some companies may have waited until after the holidays to lay off workers, accounting in part for the higher jobless numbers in January.

But Northwest Staffing Resources sees reason for optimism that Clark County employers will begin hiring again. The Vancouver staffing agency has seen a 10 percent to 15 percent increase so far this year in requests from companies looking to hire in the engineering, accounting and legal professions, said Jennie Taylor, branch manager. Some of the agency’s clients are also starting to hire temporary workers into permanent full-time positions.

“Companies are starting to feel a little more confident,” Taylor said. “Doing permanent placements is a good sign, so I think hiring will pick up.”

Print this article