Grant, Adams employment trends show 2015 growth

YAKIMA — Both Grant and Adams counties added jobs in 2015, but neither matched the statewide rate of employment growth, according to information from the Washington Employment Security Department.

Don Meseck, regional labor economist, gave a presentation on employment trends in the two counties at a recent meeting of the Columbia Basin Development League.

The news was pretty good for Grant County for 2015, Meseck said, with the county’s average annual unemployment rate at 7.1 percent. That was slightly below the rate in 2005. Unemployment was between 5 and 8 percent between 2005 and 2008, but from 2009 to 2013, “not seasonally adjusted rates lingered in the 8 to 10 percent range,” Meseck said. Average annual unemployment rates dropped between 2011 and 2015, both in Grant County and statewide.

The unemployment rate in Adams County consistently was higher that the state average between 2005 and 2015, with the exception of 2009. But the average annual unemployment rate was 6.8 percent in 2015, the same as the rate in 2005.

Agriculture provides a lot of jobs in both counties. In 2014, the last year for which data is available, the “agriculture, forestry and fishing” sector provided 27.4 percent of the jobs in Grant County and 27.3 percent of the jobs in Adams County. In both counties that sector is almost all agriculture jobs, Meseck said. Manufacturing provided 12.8 percent of the jobs in Grant County in 2014 and 14 percent in Adams County.

Local government was a major employer in Adams County, providing 18.8 percent of the county’s jobs. The figure was slightly lower in Grant County, where local government provided 17 percent of the jobs. Retail trade accounted for 8.3 percent of the jobs in Grant County and 7.9 percent in Adams County. Health services provided 9.5 percent of the jobs in Adams County in 2014 and 7 percent of the jobs in Grant County. Between them, those five job sectors accounted for about 72 percent of the jobs in Grant County and 77.5 percent of the jobs in Adams County.

But while agriculture accounted for more than one-quarter of the jobs in Grant County, it accounted for 18.9 percent of the wages in 2014. In Adams County, agricultural wages accounted for 23.6 percent of the wages.

Local government accounted for 19.4 percent of the wages in Adams County, and manufacturing for 18.6 percent of the wages. In Grant County, local government paid 19.4 percent of the wages and manufacturing accounted for 18.6 percent of wages.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.