Driven by construction and retail gains, Grant County unemployment rate drops
Construction workers raise the exterior wall of a new house in a development under construction in Moses Lake. A busy construction sector helped cut the unemployment rate in Grant County in August.
Construction workers install the exterior wall of a house in a Moses Lake housing development. An active construction sector helped cut Grant County's unemployment rate in August.
MOSES LAKE — Unemployment in Grant County is dropping from its April and May highs, driven in part by employment gains in construction and the retail sector.
August unemployment was 8.7 percent, according to new data from the Washington Department of Employment Security. That is a significant drop from July’s 11.2 percent. It’s considerably higher, however, than the 5.7 percent unemployment in August 2019.
The 2020 unemployment rate had been running lower than the 2019 rate for the first three months, until the coronavirus outbreak. It rose to 12.6 percent in April and 12.7 percent in May as state officials restricted movement and closed businesses in response to the pandemic. The June unemployment rate was 9 percent.
Don Meseck, regional labor economist for the Department of Employment Security, said Grant County actually has fared a little better than the state as a whole during the pandemic. Unemployment increased 3.5 percent in Grant County, when August 2020 is compared with August 2019. Statewide, unemployment increased 6.2 percent when the two Augusts are compared.
Meseck said the pandemic likely has increased volatility in the labor market and the unemployment rate, which has inherent volatility from month to month.
The construction sector provided some of the job growth that cut into August unemployment — construction has been adding jobs in Grant County for the past nine months, Meseck said. Construction generated about 1,720 jobs in Grant County in August 2020, 80 more than in August 2019.
Activity in the construction sector was evident last week at the Hayden Homes development near Blue Heron Park. A landscaping crew laid grass outside a nearly finished house on one side of the street, while a framing crew installed exterior walls at a house on the other side of the street.
Workers were adding siding to other houses, and farther up the street excavation crews were preparing sites for new foundations. Project manager Roger Silva said the current construction is the first phase of a three-phase project, with construction having started on the second phase.
Building activity is not restricted to Moses Lake. Grant County development services director Damian Hooper said the planning department has about 80 applications pending, most of them for residences.
“It is unbelievable,” Hooper said.
Growth in the retail sector also played a role in cutting the unemployment rate, both from July to August 2020 and from August 2019 to August 2020. Retail trade gained 210 jobs between July and August this year. The gain when August 2020 is compared with August 2019 was an increase of 330 jobs.
