Harbors unemployment ticks up slightly, still in single digits

Preliminary unemployment rates on the Twin Harbors were up slightly in August but remained in single digits, according to the the state’s monthly figures released Tuesday. Grays Harbor County still has the highest rate in the state, at 8.6 percent. Pacific County reported 7.2 percent.

Both rates are up slightly. Grays Harbor is up 0.6 percent from the revised figure for July, Pacific’s is up just 0.1 percent from July, probably due to more people actively re-entering the labor force to look for work and seasonal shifts, regional economist Jim Vleming said.

For example, 400 people in Grays Harbor County entered the labor force, which drove the number up slightly, he said. That trend is also evident in the statewide number which went from 5.4 percent in July to the revised preliminary 5.7 percent in August.

Pacific County’s lower rate is likely attributable in part to seasonal work in tourism and fishing, all those areas that “knock down that rate,” he said. Other good news is that single digits in the eight percent range and lower will likely continue, he said.

King, Douglas, Lincoln, Walla Walla and Asotin all reported figures at or just under 5 percent.

All numbers are not seasonally adjusted. The numbers do not count the people in the unemployment pool who have given up looking for work entirely.

Grays Harbor County’s preliminary figure of 8.6 percent leads the similarly-sized Lewis County, at 8.5 percent and the much smaller Ferry at 8.2 percent. Pacific stands at the second lowest rate reported in six counties in the seven percent range: Mason, 7.4 percent, Cowlitz, 7.3 percent, Yakima, 7.1 percent, Stevens, 7.6 percent and Pend Oreille at 7.8 percent.

“This is good news,” said Vleming as he laid out comparative figures for recent months. For four of the last five months and in the last three months in a row, Grays Harbor County has been in single digits, he said. Pacific has been under double digits for five consecutive months, he added.

The improvement has been slow but steady, he noted as he compared months of August past with those of the present. In 2012, the rate in Grays Harbor County was 12 percent, in 2013, it was 11 percent and now stands at 8.6 percent. In 2012 in Pacific County, the rate was 10.4 percent, 9.5 percent in 2013 and is 7.2 now.

“So, yeah, there has been improvement over the last several years,” Vleming noted. “So that’s a good move, that’s better.”