Clark County’s jobless rate climbed to 13.9 percent in August, as government organizations shed jobs more quickly than private employers hired, the state reported Wednesday.
With U.S. Census jobs disappearing as anticipated, and schools and local agencies also making cuts, the public sector shed 1,500 Clark County jobs in August. Non-government employers hired 800 workers.
The county’s unemployment rate was 13.1 percent in July and 13.6 percent in August 2009. It remains the highest in Washington.
But Scott Bailey, regional labor economist for the state Employment Security Department, said he doesn’t expect things to get much worse. The more pressing question may be: How long will it take before Clark County sees significant improvements?
“It may be that employment in the county has finally hit bottom,” Bailey wrote in his monthly report on Clark County employment. “If so, it may well bounce along for the next few months, with a slight upward trend.”
A bright spot in August: The county’s manufacturers added 300 jobs, bringing total employment in that sector to 11,800. Fabricated metal products, food processing and paper products businesses each hired 100 workers.
Bailey said neither the private-sector job gains nor the public-sector losses should be taken as evidence of a long-term trend, because both were affected by seasonal fluctuations.
Manufacturers, for example, typically hire in August. Even after boosting employment last month, total factory payrolls in the county are still 200 short of a year ago.
Clark County has lost 8,200 jobs since the recession began, leaving it with an employed work force of 125,600.
Bailey said the county will see some job creation in the months ahead. Retail giant Costco, for example, is expected to employ about 350 full-time workers when it opens early next year on the eastern edge of Vancouver.
However, Bailey doesn’t expect sustained job growth in Clark County anytime soon. . Households are still paying down debt they took on before the recent recession, and that means consumer demand will be slow to pick up. “That’s the nature of a financial meltdown,” Bailey said, noting that an estimated 30,550 Clark County residents were jobless in August and looking for work.
Statewide, the unemployment rate held at 8.9 percent in August, with the private sector picking up 900 jobs but the government sector shedding 2,900 jobs. Washington payrolls were down 2,000 last month. Year over year, Washington had 20,700 fewer jobs in August than it did in the same period a year ago, a 0.7 percent decrease. An estimated 310,876 people in Washington were unemployed and looking for work in August, while 235,483 people received unemployment benefits.
Nationally, employment grew by 0.2 percent over the past year. The jobless rate in the U.S. in August was 9.6 percent.
To obtain the full report on Washington’s employment situation, go online to http://www.workforceexplorer.com/cgi/dataanalysis/?PAGEID=148.
