Number of out of work Grant Co. residents increases
CBH Columbia Basin Herald Local News
MOSES LAKE - Grant County unemployment jumped to 11.2 percent in December, an increase of 2.7 percent from November, according to a recent state report.
Grant County had an unemployment rate of 7.2 percent in October.
As of December, 4,390 people in Grant County were unemployed, according to the report recently released by the state Employment Security Department. In November 2012, 3,470 county residents were without work.
Regional labor economist Mark Berreth said the increase in unemployment is typical for this time of year. Seasonal jobs in the agriculture industry cause unemployment to peak in the first few months of each year and drop during the summer months, he said.
Although unemployment rates have increased over the past few months, Berreth said things are looking up compared to previous years.
Berreth said December's preliminary unemployment rate of 11.2 percent, which is not seasonally adjusted, is 0.8 percentage points below the unemployment rate in December 2011.
Grant County had an unemployment rate of 12 percent in December of 2011, according to the report.
"Compared to December of last year, it's looking better," he said. "But it comes with a bit of a caveat."
Berreth said that some of the drop in the number of unemployed comes from people leaving the labor force, not necessarily from people finding work.
"People have been looking for employment for a while and when they haven't found it, they quit looking," said Berreth. "We saw that pretty significantly in 2011, that people were getting discouraged and just leaving the work force." Berreth said the agency only counts someone as unemployed if they are actively looking for a job.
Berreth said the report's December figures show that non-farm employment in Grant County is up compared to data from December 2011. Non-farm employment experienced a 3.7 percent change from 2011 to 2012, according to the report.
"Grant County has been the place that we've seen growth across all the sectors," he said. "That's pretty rare across the state even so Grant County is doing very well on that side of it." Financial activities are also showing a growth, said Berreth. That sector grew by 13.1 percent from December 2011 to December 2012, he said.
"Investors, financial advisors, other finance positions - businesses in general are starting to hire that financial aspect back," said Berreth.
The professional and business services sector is also growing, which is resulting in more engineering and architectural jobs, said Berreth.
"That's very big," he said. "Those were the top jobs titles getting laid off early in the recession so to see that side of it do well again is a very promising sign."
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