County growth robust

When it comes to job creation, Spokane is hard at work.

The county outpaced every other community in the state in job growth during the 12-month period that began in October 2005, according to state statistics.

“That’s the blow-the-doors-off story of the year,” said an excited Scot Auble in a phone interview. Auble, president of the local real estate appraisal company Auble, Jolicoeur and Gentry, has been tracking regional economic trends for years.

“It may be the best job growth that’s ever occurred (here),” he added.

About 10,200 jobs were created in Spokane County between October 2005 and October 2006. That’s five times more than just three years ago, when Spokane added 2,000 jobs, and double the 5,100 jobs created here between 2004 and 2005. In November, Spokane County’s unemployment rate stood at a respectable 4.6 percent, same as King County and better than the statewide figure of 5 percent, according to numbers compiled by the Washington state Employment Security Department.

Jeff Zahir, a Washington state labor economist, said Spokane’s job growth year-to-year stands at 4.5 percent. Preliminary figures for November show the county’s total employment at 220,900.

The news is even better in Kootenai County, which likely will beat Spokane with more than 5 percent job growth in 2006, said Kathryn Tacke, regional economist for the Idaho Commerce and Labor Department.

That is after two years of spectacular growth that twice catapulted Kootenai County onto the list of the nation’s five fastest-growing metropolitan statistical areas, she added. The top three growth sectors were education and health services, professional and business services, and construction, respectively.

Randy Barcus, Avista Corp.’s chief economist, said of Spokane’s strong showing, “It’s the first time since the early ‘90s, when Boeing was melting down,” that Spokane has outshined Seattle in job growth. King County’s job growth rate was half that of Spokane’s, according to statistics compiled by the ESD.

“Spokane saw robust, solid growth across all (job) sectors – which leads me to believe this is sustainable,” Barcus said.

Leading the local pack is the professional and business services sector – architects, lawyers, accountants and other white-collar workers – with 2,200 new positions.

Spokane native Brett Davidson, a spring graduate from Gonzaga University, fits into that category. As a master’s student pursuing an accountancy degree in the fall of 2005, he attended an on-campus job fair, intending to interview with four accounting firms.

His first choice was a local company.

“They offered me a job and I canceled the other three (interviews),” said Davidson, who in September became a staff accountant with his preferred firm, McDirmid, Mikkelsen & Secrest in downtown Spokane.

An outdoors lover who’s close to his family in Spokane, Davidson said he prefers the Inland Northwest’s laid-back lifestyle over the hassles of Seattle.

“I don’t have a huge desire to leave,” he said, “so I was excited to be able to stay in Spokane.”

In other sectors, the construction industry added 1,900 jobs. Education and health services saw 1,200 new employees.

Jon Eliassen, president and chief executive officer of the Spokane Area Economic Development Council, said the region has undergone a transformation in the last five years.

“We’ve seen tremendous growth and it’s been a great boon to the economy. This drives sales tax receipts and increases the property tax base, which bodes well for governments to provide necessary infrastructure,” Eliassen said.

Zahir said he’s picked up on another upbeat detail.

“Wages have risen, opportunities for advancement within firms have increased and the (job) growth has been experienced in virtually all sectors of the economy,” he said.