Adams Co. economy shows signs of slowing in December
A truck leaves the McCain Foods facility in Othello. Employment in Adams County’s manufacturing sector, which is mostly food processing businesses, declined slightly between December 2021 and December 2022.
FILE PHOTO
RITZVILLE — After declining for 19 consecutive months, the year-over-year unemployment rate in Adams County increased in November and December 2022.
The county’s unemployment rate in December 2022 was 7.6%, up from 5.9% in December 2021. Unemployment also increased between November and December 2022. November’s unemployment rate was 4.9%.
Don Meseck, the regional labor economist for the Washington Employment Security Department, wrote in a press release that Adams County’s nonfarm economy added 320 jobs in 2022.
The county’s civilian labor force was expanding throughout 2022, Meseck wrote, and had been since April 2021.
“Simultaneously, however, the number of unemployed jumped by 36.6%, as 195 more Adams County residents were out of work in December 2022 than December 2021,” Meseck wrote. “The year-over-year labor force growth was more than countered by the increase in the number of unemployed.”
Meseck wrote that Adams County followed the state trend, where the economy had started to recover from the layoffs prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The state and county economies started to revive in 2021, growth which extended into 2022. But the rate of growth, both statewide and in Adams County, started to slow down in the fourth quarter of 2022.
About 90% of Adams County’s manufacturing jobs are in food processing, which saw a small downturn between December 2021 and December 2022. The industry lost 10 jobs.
“Employment in this industry appears to have ended calendar year 2022 a little weaker than it started,” Meseck wrote.
Most of the jobs in Adams County’s private education and health services sector are in health care, and that sector has been growing since 2017. But growth stagnated between December 2021 and December 2022, with the same number of jobs in both months. The sector lost 20 jobs between November and December 2022.
The county’s leisure and hospitality sector grew between December 2021 and December 2022, adding 20 jobs year over year. The sector either held steady or added jobs between April 2021 and December 2022.
Many sectors of Adams County’s economy showed a little bit of growth, or stayed the same between the Decembers, although the construction sector added 30 jobs when measured year over year, an increase of 27.3%. However, a number of sectors lost jobs between November and December 2022, including retail trade, which lost 30 jobs.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.