Clark County’s jobless rate dropped more than a full percentage point to 12 percent in September, as 1,800 people found jobs here.
The news Tuesday from Washington’s Employment Security Department may encourage job seekers like Ashley Ross, a 23-year-old Vancouver resident.
After being laid off in August, she’s working hard to build her skill set as she looks for administrative support jobs. “I never thought I’d have to go to the state for help,” she said Monday, outside the WorkSource benefits office.
While individual job seekers may find some hope in the September job data, Clark County’s overall job market remains weak, with mostly seasonal factors causing the uptick in jobs, said Scott Bailey, regional labor economist for the state Employment Security Department. The county is still down 8,800 jobs since the pre-recession peak.
The county’s unemployment rate — down from a revised 13.2 percent in August — remains the highest of Washington’s 39 counties, but is at its lowest level since January 2009. The county’s jobless rate was 12.1 percent in September 2009.
An estimated 25,600 county residents were jobless and looking for work in September, “essentially the same as last September,” Bailey said.
That means area job seekers likely face a prolonged struggle to persuade employers to hire them on.
Ross understands the difficulty. But she’s not giving up. Standing outside the WorkSource office, she held a sign of her progress: a certificate of “dependable strengths” she received from a WorkSource class that included training in interview and computer skills.
Ross said she feels supported by her church, Living Hope. “My church is my backbone,” she said. And the WorkSource training has sharpened her resume and given her new skills — and confidence that she’ll be able to get a job offer.
Suffice it to say, it won’t be easy. Professional and business services — the sector where Ross hopes to work — cut 200 jobs in September, as did government.
Other sectors did better. The start of the school year brought a 900-job increase in K-12 education. Leisure and hospitality added 300 jobs. Arts, entertainment and recreation added 800. Manufacturing rose by 300 jobs in September. Fabricated metals, machinery and food processing were all hiring.
Although manufacturing was 100 jobs above normal seasonal factors, Bailey said, “it’s something we’d have to see for a couple months” before declaring it evidence of sustained growth.
Overall, Clark County’s September hiring pushed total employment up to 127,300. However, that was still down 2,100 jobs from September 2009.
Bailey said he is particularly concerned that more than 1,900 Southwest Washington residents — the majority of whom live in Clark County — have already exhausted their unemployment benefits, “and thousands more will join them in the coming months.
“What will happen to those people this winter?” Bailey said.
Statewide, Washington picked up an estimated 1,000 private-sector jobs in September, while the unemployment rate held steady at 9 percent. The August rate was revised from 8.9 percent to 9 percent. While the private sector added jobs, overall payrolls were down 3,200 in the state because of the loss of an estimated 4,200 government jobs.
The U.S. jobless rate was 9.6 percent in September, unchanged from August.
