Grant County unemployment rises from June to July

MOSES LAKE — While unemployment in Grant County in July was lower than it was in May, it was higher than in June. And it was up substantially when compared with July 2019.

Grant County’s unemployment rate for July 2020 was 11.5 percent. The unemployment rate recorded for June was 9 percent, and for May it was 12.7 percent.

Unemployment was 5.1 percent in July 2019.

Don Meseck, regional labor economist with the Washington Department of Employment Security, said the number of people unemployed in Grant County rose by 35.6 percent from June 2020 to July 2020. Monthly unemployment reports use data collected up to the 12th of each month.

Meseck said there doesn’t appear to have been a layoff, or series of layoffs, to account for the job losses.

Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. announced the suspension of its North American aircraft development operation in early June, which eliminated 240 jobs between Moses Lake and Renton. That was the only large-scale layoff in Grant County, he said.

The August report will reflect the unemployment data through Aug. 12, and Meseck said that it’s too early to tell what it will look like. “We will have to wait and see. It’s just too hard to predict,” he said.

The unemployment rate, both in Grant County and statewide, reflects measures taken to fight the COVID-19 outbreak. State officials imposed severe restrictions on movement and closed most businesses in late March. A reopening plan was announced in May but was put on hold in June when the state experienced an increase in cases.

Meseck said in June that the halt in the reopening plan could have an effect on the unemployment rate.

The county’s manufacturing sector lost jobs from July 2019 to July 2020.

“All of the softness in these manufacturing numbers occurred in the durable goods sector,” Meseck said. “These manufacturing job losses, in aggregate, are not a recent phenomenon. Year over year, employment in Grant County’s manufacturing sector has contracted in each of the past 31 months, since January 2018.”

Employment in the county’s professional and business services sector declined in four consecutive months, April to July, and lost jobs from July 2019 to July 2020. Meseck said most of those job losses probably came from temporary employment firms.

Meseck said in an earlier interview that Grant County employers that are expecting to hire people often use temporary employment services to try out prospective employees. When business in temporary services is slow, it could be a sign employers are delaying hiring.

The construction sector did show some modest growth. Construction added about 100 jobs between June 2020 and July 2020.