Regional labor economist receives new county focus

COLUMBIA BASIN - The face of labor analysis in the region is about to change.

After 10 years, regional labor economist Donald Meseck is no longer going to prepare reports for any of the north central Washington counties, including Adams and Grant counties.

The Labor Market and Economic Analysis Branch of the Employment Security Department received funding for and hired another regional labor economist for Adams, Chelan, Douglas, Grant and Okanogan counties, Meseck explained. Another economist was hired to cover Eastern Washington.

"This reorganization will enable us as regional economists to provide more detailed economic analysis services to our clients," Meseck said.

The management goal is to have every regional economist report to a Lacey-based area manager, he added.

"It's a noble doctrine," Meseck said. "The strategy is to have each region report to our area labor market information manager, which will mean that person will be supervising 12 work force council areas."

The goal has always been more support for work force development councils in each area, Meseck said.

"This enables an economist to concentrate on those areas," he said. "The bottom line is that person will probably be able to do more county-level analysis. I think it's very good that we finally as regional economists have impressed on our clients we have been providing good economic analysis services. That's why the Legislature has approved the funding."

Meseck continues to serve as regional labor economist for Kittitas and Yakima counties, and is adding Klickitat and Skamania counties. His office remains in the economic department at Central Washington University.

Meseck was in Moses Lake Monday to introduce his replacement, Tihamiyou Baba-Moussa, to people around the area. Baba-Moussa is stationed in Wenatchee.

"I'm happy to take over from Don," Bab-Moussa said. "I look forward to working with you all."

Economists will be cross-trained for North Central and South Central Washington counties in the event of a vacation or illness, Meseck said, so he may be able to step in for Baba-Moussa or vice versa.

Meseck said he hoped to continue serving North Central Washington, but that wasn't an option.

"The reasons I liked serving is, I think I've developed a lot of personal and professional friendships in the area," he said. "One of the reasons I moved out here to Central Washington from Tacoma was to be closer to the people I served."

Meseck began serving from headquarters in Lacey in February 1998 before making the move in September 2002.

Meseck said each year, the counties he's covered experience normal seasonal swings in agriculture.

"Each year, we kind of sweat out two big economic events, the cherry harvest and the apple harvest," he said. "Agriculture is very important to the economics of these areas, and I think agriculture is going to continue to be a major player, but it's always a very volatile situation, hard to predict."

Meseck sees Grant County still being a "shining star" of Central Washington with the development of server farms, trucking companies and other manufacturing companies.

Of all the counties Meseck served, Grant County tends to be the most encouraging, he said, pointing to such factors as reasonably priced land, power, infrastructure and extreme cooperation between business and government entities as boding for a good economic future for the county.

Adams County and Okanogan County are always wild cards, Meseck added, but he pointed to developments like the formation of the Adams Development Council.

"I think the future, overall, looks bright for North Central Washington," Meseck said. "With the demographics changing, with a lot of people moving, retiring into this area, with economic developments in Grant County, whether it's polysilicon wafers, trucking firms, server farms or wind tower manufacturers."