County jobless rate down near 5%

Published 1:36 pm Friday, July 26, 2024

Pacific County’s unemployment rate continued its descent to nearly 5% in June, according to new figures from the Washington State Employment Security Department.

Preliminary data released last week by the state agency pegged the county’s jobless rate at 5.4% last month, down from 5.9% in May. It’s the second-best June mark for the county dating back to at least 1990, trailing only June 2023’s 4.9% rate.

Overall, the county unemployment rate ranked 32nd out of Washington’s 39 counties and ahead of neighboring Grays Harbor (5.8%) and Wahkiakum (6.6%) counties. As usual, Ferry County in the northeast corner of the state had the highest unemployment rate at 7.5% and was the only county with a jobless rate higher than 6.6%.

The statewide unemployment rate sat at 4.7% for June, up from 4.6% in May and up from 3.7% a year ago. Seventeen counties had an unemployment rate at or below 4.5%, with Asotin County in southeast Washington having the lowest rate in the state at 3.4%.

An estimated 6,410 people in Pacific County were employed in nonfarm jobs in June, up 2.6% from May and up 1.3% from a year ago. The figures exclude farm workers, private household employees, business owners and those employed by nonprofits. It’s the highest number of workers employed in nonfarm jobs in the county since last August, and among the highest since the beginning of the Great Recession more than 15 years ago.

The biggest private industry in the county, leisure and hospitality, saw its workforce increase 7.8% from 1,030 in May to an estimated 1,110 in June as the calendar turned from spring to summer, and was also better than June 2023’s 1,060 workers. The county’s large public sector workforce was up marginally over the previous month and flat over the year prior, at 1,890.

Local manufacturing jobs in June were up 3.1% over both the previous month and year, increasing from 640 to 660. The retail workforce checked in at 760, up 2.7% from May and up 4.1% from June 2023.

The only industry in the county that saw losses in June was education and health services. At 530 jobs, the workforce slipped 1.9% from 540 in May and decreased a more noticeable 11.7% from 600 in June 2023.