Grant, Adams unemployment not worst in state

OLYMPIA — While the unemployment situation in the Columbia Basin is dire, it is not as bad as it is in other parts of the state.

According to the state Employment Security Department’s monthly employment report for April, Grant County’s unemployment rate hit 12.6 percent, below the preliminary statewide unemployment rate of 15.4 percent, seasonally adjusted.

The nationwide unemployment rate for April is 14.7 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

By comparison, Adams County reported an unemployment rate for April of 8.5 percent — the second lowest in the state behind 6.6 percent for Whitman County — while the worst-hit county in the state, Snohomish, reported an April unemployment rate of 20.2 percent.

The county figures for April, however, have not been seasonally adjusted and do not take into account fluctuations such as farm employment.

According to figures for April from the BLS, Washington lost 527,000 non-farm jobs, with a third of those — 177,000 — in the “leisure and hospitality” sector. Most of those, around 120,000, are “in food services and drinking places.”

While most of the 527,000 lost jobs are in the private sector, the BLS report said government employment in Washington fell by 28,500 in April.

— Charles H. Featherstone