Grant County unemployment rises sharply in April

MOSES LAKE — The restrictions placed on movement and business in April due to the COVID-19 outbreak are being seen in the local employment picture.

Unemployment rose more than five percentage points, from 7 percent in March to 12.6 percent in April, according to information from the state Employment Security Department.

Don Meseck, an ESD regional labor economist, said unemployment had been declining in the first three months of 2020 compared with 2019. Unemployment claims continued to rise in May, so Meseck expects May unemployment to be higher than it was in April.

“I anticipate the non-farm employment will continue to fall, but the extent of those job losses I don’t know, and I won’t hazard a guess,” he said. “During May, we still had rising (unemployment) claims in agriculture, construction, professional and business services, health services — almost every major industry.”

The unemployment data for May will be released June 23.

The restrictions associated with the coronavirus outbreak cost Grant County 2,190 jobs in April, Meseck said. It was the highest April unemployment rate in Grant County since state employment officials started keeping electronic records in 1990.

Grant County’s economy lost jobs from March to April in all sectors except information and financial services. That sector didn’t gain any jobs, but it didn’t lose any either.

The construction and professional and business services sectors were hit hard by the layoffs, Meseck said. Employment in the construction industry increased from December 2019 to March 2020, then dropped by 21.8 percent in April 2020. Construction lost 500 jobs from March to April.

The professional and business services sector includes workers such attorneys, accountants, janitors and landscapers, and temporary employment businesses, among others. Employment was trending down in that sector from September 2019 through April 2020, Meseck said. Unemployment in that sector went up by 29.5 percent between April 2019 and April 2020. In April, the sector lost 550 jobs, most of them among temporary employment firms.

Grant County’s retail sector had stagnated between 2018 and 2019, but it showed some modest gains in the first quarter of 2020, Meseck said. But retail trade lost 170 jobs from March to April 2020.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].