<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
March 19, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

Local economy shifts gears

Strong job growth, a larger workforce and a steady housing market among the factors that contributed to improvement

By , Columbian Business Editor
Published:

OCTOBER

• Vancouver’s Barrett Business Services stock drops nearly 60 percent following earnings report.

• The American Empress completes a successful first year of Columbia River cruises.

• Grocery Cocktail & Social brings new vibe to downtown Vancouver.

NOVEMBER

• Port of Vancouver adopts record-setting $56.8 million budget that includes innovative rail car lease program.

• Clark County economy remains hot with a 4.9 percent annualized job growth rate.

• Barrett Business Services investors sue the company, saying it misled shareholders about its market value.

DECEMBER

• Vancouver’s Luepke Florist closes its doors after 105 years.

• A five-story, 96-unit apartment complex is proposed at Vancouver’s West 13th and Columbia streets.

• Wal-Mart breaks ground on long-delayed Supercenter on Northeast Fourth Plain Boulevard in Orchards.

Economic Forecast

See the Clark County 2015 Economic Forecast

Clark County’s long-lagging economy played a good deal of catchup during the last fiscal quarter with the larger Portland metro and state of Washington economies, by way of strong job growth, a larger workforce and a steady housing market.

OCTOBER

&#8226; Vancouver's Barrett Business Services stock drops nearly 60 percent following earnings report.

&#8226; The American Empress completes a successful first year of Columbia River cruises.

&#8226; Grocery Cocktail & Social brings new vibe to downtown Vancouver.

NOVEMBER

&#8226; Port of Vancouver adopts record-setting $56.8 million budget that includes innovative rail car lease program.

&#8226; Clark County economy remains hot with a 4.9 percent annualized job growth rate.

&#8226; Barrett Business Services investors sue the company, saying it misled shareholders about its market value.

DECEMBER

&#8226; Vancouver's Luepke Florist closes its doors after 105 years.

&#8226; A five-story, 96-unit apartment complex is proposed at Vancouver's West 13th and Columbia streets.

&#8226; Wal-Mart breaks ground on long-delayed Supercenter on Northeast Fourth Plain Boulevard in Orchards.

Clark County added more jobs, on a percentage basis, than the Portland-Vancouver metro area and the state. The county’s workforce inched closer to a milestone of 200,000 workers, with 192,680 residents employed in November.

And people keep coming: In the year’s last three months, 3,936 drivers turned in out-of-state license plates for Washington plates in Clark County. That’s more than 40 newcomers every day.

Those employed workers helped drive the economy. Home construction leaped by 23 percent compared to a year ago. Home sales climbed by 17 percent. The median sales price was up 10 percent for the year, undoubtedly one factor that contributed to December’s huge 58 percent year-over-year decline in home foreclosures.

Local numbers for holiday season retail sales aren’t yet available, but national sources report a 0.2 percent increase in retail sales for the month. That’s double what economists predicted, and matches anecdotal reports that local residents were opening their wallets a bit wider.

Other positive national and international indicators also contributed to improvements in the county’s economy. Semiconductor sales reached almost $30 billion in November, and year-to-dale sales through November were 10 percent higher than all of 2013. Strong semiconductor sales matter to Clark County firms such as WaferTech, SEH America, and nLight, all of which are part of the digital technology supply chain.

The manufacturing sector, as measured by the National Purchasing Mangers Index, expanded for the 19th consecutive month in December, although the pace of growth cooled a bit from the previous month.

But it was far from a great quarter for Barrett Business Services, the Vancouver-based provider of employment services to small and midsized companies. In October, the company reported that it would have to increase its reserve by $80 million for payment of drawn-out worker compensation claims. Reaction was swift. The company’s stock price dropped by 60 percent, and soon lawsuits were flying. In November, multiple suits were in the works saying the company had underreported its liabilities and misled investors. On a hopeful note, Barrett’s stock has made a steady climb from its low of $18.25 per share to around $30 last week, still far below its 52-week peak of $97.25 per share.

The Port of Vancouver took a big risk with an investment in an innovative rail car lease program that aims to fill up westbound rail cars now returning empty after shipping commodities to North Dakota’s oil fields. The port says it has contracts to fill 77 leased rail cars headed westbound, and it expects to generate at least $18.6 million in revenue this year from the new service.

Economic Forecast

See the Clark County 2015 Economic Forecast

Downtown Vancouver saw some comings and going. Both the long-struggling Vancouver Food Co-op and Luepke Florist, a century-old institution, shut their doors. But Bruno Amicci, owner of the Luepke building at 1300 Washington Street, this month opened a new flower shop at the site and is busy finding retail and dining tenants to fill the building as a new downtown attraction he is calling Luepke Station.

A short distance away, a five-story, 96-unit apartment complex is being proposed for a surface parking lot at West 13th and Columbia streets. And the Grocery Cocktail & Social, a restaurant at 7th and Columbia streets, brought a buzz to downtown with its southern-style cuisine.

The best news for consumers during the quarter was the dramatic drop in gasoline prices nationally and locally. Vancouver’s average price for a gallon of regular last week was $2.22 per gallon, down from $3.35 a year ago, and low prices are expected to continue through the year. Time will tell whether those low prices will further boost retail sales and other consumer spending. And time also will tell whether turmoil in oil markets will have an impact on the proposed Tesoro -Savage oil terminal that remains the county’s biggest business story of the new year.

Loading...
Columbian Business Editor