County unemployment dropped in April

MOSES LAKE - Grant County unemployment dropped from 11.3 percent in March to 10.1 percent in April, which is .3 percent higher than one year ago.

The total number of nonfarm and private jobs are down 1.4 and .9 percent, respectively, over last year.

Part of the drop is due to a reduction in government employment, according to Mark Berreth, a regional labor economist with the state Employment Security Department.

"That's kind of been expected," he said. "We've really seen that fiscal tightening occur, so a lot of government employment has been shedding jobs."

What was surprising was a 3.7 percent drop of goods-producing jobs over last year, the equivalent of about 200 jobs, he said.

"We're most likely seeing that through nondurable goods and durable manufacturing along with construction," he said.

Overall, the county gained about 1,300 jobs, mostly in agriculture, said Berreth. Only about 190 nonfarm jobs were added.

Another positive indication is that signs of workers leaving the labor force have lessened.

"People are starting to come back in the labor force again," said Berreth. "They're feeling a little bit better about the economy. There are more jobs available for the most part. Now they're just feeling better about it, so they're willing to come back in and search for jobs again."