Adams County unemployment rate drops in December
A truck leaves Othello’s McCain Foods facility in November 2021. A strong food processing sector helped drive down Adams County’s unemployment rate in 2021.
File Photo
OTHELLO — Recovery in Adams County’s food processing sector and expansion of its health services industry contributed to a substantial drop in the county’s unemployment rate between December 2020 and December 2021. The December 2021 unemployment rate of 5.5% was a substantial improvement from December 2019 too.
The unemployment rate in December 2020 was 7.1%, according to information from the Washington Employment Security Department. It was 7.5% in December 2019.
The unemployment rate did increase between November and December 2021. It was 4% in November last year.
Don Meseck, WESD regional labor economist, wrote that the number of people in the Adams County labor force declined slightly from December 2020 to December 2021.
“But this modest, year-over-year contraction in the labor force was more than countered by the dramatic decline in the number who were unemployed in December 2020 versus in December 2021,” Meseck wrote.
The county’s labor force is slightly smaller than it was in December 2019, Meseck wrote. But Adams County employment increased every month from April to December 2021. The number of jobs in the county was higher in December 2021 than December 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The current economic recovery in Adams County’s nonfarm (labor) market appears to be well underway,” Meseck wrote.
About 90% of manufacturing jobs in Adams County are in food processing, and employment in that sector shrank in 2020, but rebounded in 2021.
“Preliminary estimates indicate that, year over year, manufacturing employment in Adams County increased in each of the past eight months, May through December 2021,” Meseck wrote.
Employment increased from 1,090 jobs in December 2020 to 1,200 jobs in December 2021.
The private education and health services sector kept growing right through the pandemic, Meseck wrote. Most of that sector’s jobs in Adams County are in health care, he added.
The health services sector has been adding jobs for years, recording year-over-year job growth from October 2017 to December 2021. The health services sector grew by 40 jobs in 2019, 60 jobs in 2020 and 30 jobs in 2021.
“Clearly this is a growth industry in Adams County,” Meseck wrote.
Employment in the retail trade sector also increased between December 2020 and December 2021. In fact, employment increased in retail trade, when measured year over year, from August to December 2021.
The leisure and hospitality sector also added jobs, year over year, from December 2020 to December 2021. But jobs in the transportation, warehousing and utilities sector shrank, when measured from December to December. That sector lost 30 jobs from December 2020 to December 2021.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.