Clark County lost 1,800 jobs in July, pushing its jobless rate to 13.3 percent — the highest in Washington, according to a report released Tuesday by the state Employment Security Department. The county’s unemployment rate was 12.4 percent in June and 13.7 percent in July 2009.
The bulk of the job losses occurred in the government sector, with agencies shedding hundreds of positions in local and state government, temporary federal Census jobs, and nontenured education jobs.
On the bright side, Clark County’s manufacturing sector added 100 jobs in July. And professional and business services added 200 jobs, double what would normally be expected at the time of year. However, the county, with 11,500 manufacturing jobs, is still 2,400 jobs below its prerecession levels. Likewise, the county’s professional and business services sector, which employs 14,600, is 1,000 jobs short of prerecession levels.
Limited job growth and years of job losses have left Clark County struggling to recover from the Great Recession.
“There is still a lot of slack in the labor market, with no real sign of a turnaround,” said Scott Bailey, regional labor economist for the state Employment Security Department.
Bailey said most of the job losses in Clark County’s government sector were in education, which reflect “typical summer layoffs,” including in nontenured education jobs. However, the state, facing another round of cuts due to decreasing tax collections, is expected to make permanent job cuts in the fall.
Those cuts, along with an anemic private sector, do not bode well for the future, Bailey said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if things are going to turn down by the end of the year.”
In Clark County, though the federal government hired 100 people, it also laid off 200 temporary U.S. Census workers, resulting in a net loss of 100 jobs. At least 100 more Census workers can expect to lose their jobs by the end of September. Meanwhile, state agencies laid off 700 workers.
The county’s construction sector, which typically adds 100 seasonal hires in July, was unchanged from June — and down 1,600 jobs from July 2009, Bailey said.
Clark County’s best hope for putting people back to work may come in the form of major long-term capital projects, Bailey said. Eventual job gains may result from the planned $3.6 billion Columbia River Crossing and the Port of Vancouver’s recent sale of land to Farwest Steel Corp. to build a new steel-processing facility.
Statewide, unemployment held steady at 8.6 percent, statistically unchanged from the 8.8 percent June and July 2009 rate. The seasonally adjusted U.S. jobless rate was 9.5 percent in July, unchanged from June and down one tenth of a percent from July 2009.
In July, 2,057 Clark County residents filed initial claims for state unemployment benefits, down from 3,023 new filings in July 2009. They join 12,090 people who were already receiving unemployment benefits. The state unemployment insurance system has paid $131 million in benefits to county residents so far this year. Roughly 5,000 county residents receive unemployment benefits from Oregon.
The state unemployment rate fell for the fourth straight month to 8.9 percent in July, state officials said Tuesday. Oregon’s seasonally adjusted rate for July was 10.6 percent, nearly unchanged from the June rate of 10.5 percent, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.
Correction: An earlier version of this story included an incorrect unemployment rate in its headline.
