Whatcom County Real Estate
Whatcom County jobless rate is low; however, a substantial percentage of jobs can not keep up with local "cost of living" economy. In the short term this will create a buyers market for Whatcom County commercial real estate.
County Jobless Rate Matches Record Low
DAVE GALLAGHER
Whatcom County’s unemployment rate continues to drop into record-low territory, and while it means employers are scrambling to find qualified workers, economists are suggesting there is room for economic improvement.
The local unemployment rate, not seasonably adjusted, was at 3.8 percent in May, according to a Washington State Employment Security Department report released Tuesday. It is only the second time that Whatcom County’s unemployment has dipped below 4 percent since the state began tracking unemployment with current methods in 1970. The last time it happened was in October, when the rate also hit 3.8 percent.
The tight job market has certainly kept employment staffing agencies busy. Stacey Powell, office manager at Express Personnel, said their sales numbers are up 80 percent over the previous year. In 2006 the employment agency helped fill 1,200 positions. In the first five months of this year, the company has filled 860 jobs for 186 different companies.
“It’s been a very tight job market for a long time, and we’ve been helping (employers) adjust,” Powell said. “A company can’t interview someone three times and draw it out for three weeks and expect the candidate to still be around. It is also a time where qualified applicants are demanding higher salaries, because they know there are jobs available.”
However, a deeper look at the numbers shows some potentially troubling signs for the local economy, said Hart Hodges, director of the Center of Economic and Business Research at Western Washington University. Hodges recently
Completed a study looking at the local work force and found population growth to be stagnant or declining between the ages of 25 and 44, while that same demographic is growing significantly in Snohomish and Clark counties. He suspects that people in their prime employment years are leaving the area and going to metro areas that offer higher-paying jobs.
“Unemployment numbers need to be taken with a grain of salt,” said Hodges, noting the overall work force decreased from 107,000 in February to 105,900 in May. “Believe me, I’ll take 3.8 percent unemployment over 13.8 percent any day, but I don’t think the 3.8 number tells the entire story about what is happening in this economy.”
Jim Vleming, a regional labor economist, agreed with Hodges, noting that he would expect the unemployment rate to rise as students finish school and enter the job market.
“There are still a lot of jobs that are in the $10-an-hour range, so there could be a significant number of people working at wages that aren’t keeping up with the cost of living,” Vleming said.
Nevertheless, there are jobs out there. The low unemployment rate is something that Whatcom County has been enjoying for quite some time; the area has only been above 5 percent once in the past 16 months. Many economists consider 5 percent to be the point where an area has reached full employment.
In Washington State, the seasonably adjusted unemployment rate was 4.6 percent in May, up from a historic low of 4.4 percent in April. Other major metro areas also are seeing low rates, including Seattle (3.9 percent), Spokane (4.0 percent) Olympia (4.0 percent) and Tacoma (4.4 percent). Nationally, unemployment was 4.5 percent in May.
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