Adams County unemployment rate drops
CHERYL SCHWEIZER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 9 years, 5 months AGO
Unemployment rate
Senior Reporter Cheryl Schweizer is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience serving small communities in the Pacific Northwest. She began her post-high-school education at Treasure Valley Community College and enerned her journalism degree at Oregon State University. After working for multiple publications, she has settled down at the Columbia Basin Herald and has been a staple of the newsroom for more than a decade. Schweizer’s dedication to her communities and profession has earned her the nickname “The Baroness of Bylines.” She covers a variety of beats including health, business and various municipalities. | August 5, 2016 6:00 AM
RITZVILLE — Unemployment in Adams County dropped in May, both when compared with May 2016 and April 2016.
The nonfarm unemployment rate, not seasonally adjusted, was 5.5 percent in May 2016 compared to 5.9 percent in May 2015. That’s also a decline from April’s unemployment rate of 6.3 percent, said Don Meseck, regional labor economist for the Washington Employment Security Department. “The number of unemployed residents declined and the local labor force expanded,” Meseck wrote.
But the number of non-farm jobs available in Adams County declined between May 2015 and May 2016, Meseck said. “Year over year, nonfarm employment in Adams County has decreased for the past 11 months, July 2015 through May 2016. In May 2016 there were 240 fewer nonfarm jobs in Adams County than in May 2015.” The county lost 240 jobs, a 4.1 percent downturn, he said. “Certainly discouraging news for the local economy.”
Adams County’s civilian labor force expanded by 252 people between May 2015 and May 2016. “Since the (labor force) expanded year over year while nonfarm employment contracted, it is likely that many of the residents who re-entered the labor force this May are working the county’s agricultural sector.”
Job growth declined in Adams County between May 2015 and May 2016; the county had 240 fewer nonfarm jobs. That bucks the state trend of 3.2 percent job growth, Meseck said.
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