Grant County unemployment drops from September to October

MOSES LAKE — Unemployment in Grant County dropped 2.3% between September and October, according to information released Thursday by the Washington Department of Employment Security.

Job openings in a number of sectors took unemployment from 7.4% in September to 5.1% in October. For comparison, Grant County unemployment was 5% in October 2019.

Don Meseck, regional labor economist with state employment security, said the construction, professional and business services, retail, and consumer goods manufacturing (cosmetics, cleaning products, etc.), provided more employment between October 2019 and October 2020. But the leisure and hospitality sector, and state and local government education sector, both saw substantial job losses.

Employment in the construction industry has continued to grow in 2020 despite the COVID-19 outbreak. When measured year-over-year, employment in construction in Grant County increased every month from December 2019 to October 2020, Meseck said.

Employment in consumer manufacturing increased between July and October 2020. Meseck said Grant County’s manufacturers mostly consist of food-processing businesses.

The retail sector has been adding jobs from June through October 2020. That’s after a large drop in employment in April and May 2020, a reflection of restrictions placed on businesses by state officials in reaction to the coronavirus pandemic.

Employment also increased in the professional and business services sector from July to October 2020. But, Meseck said, the employment numbers in that sector “are derived primarily from sample-based estimates and the sample size is small. Hence, these estimates are likely to be revised downwards when more information becomes available,” he said.

The leisure and hospitality sector wasn’t so lucky. That sector lost jobs between April and October, which Meseck said was related to the coronavirus outbreak. That sector includes hotels, as well as restaurants and bars, among others. But, job losses in Grant County’s leisure and hospitality sector have been lower than the job losses statewide.

The state and local government education sector also lost jobs between October 2019 and October 2020 — and has been losing jobs, year over year, since April, Meseck said. In Grant County that includes job losses at Big Bend Community College as well as local school districts.