November 18, 2009 in Business

Spokane jobless rate drops to 7.9 percent

Statewide, numbers up; economist still cautious

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Spokane County employers hired more than 3,000 workers in October, lifting total employment numbers to the highest level since February, and pushing the unemployment rate to the lowest level since December 2008.

The October rate fell to 7.9 percent. Statewide, according to the Washington Department of Employment Security, the rate climbed from 9.1 percent in September to 9.3 percent, seasonally adjusted, and 8.8 percent unadjusted. The Spokane figure is also unadjusted.

The national unemployment rate is 10.2 percent, seasonally adjusted.

Although encouraged by the numbers reported Tuesday, Regional Labor Economist Doug Tweedy cautioned that October’s numbers alone do not conclusively signal a turnaround for the Spokane economy.

Employment numbers have seesawed for several months, a pattern likely to continue, he said, “but trending higher.”

There were 222,420 jobholders in Spokane County in October, up from 219,040 in September. Employment peaked in November 2008 at 229,380, and bottomed out in June at 217,620.

The unemployment rate hit its lowest point – 5.3 percent – in October 2008.

Tweedy said hiring increased almost across the board, with the exception of manufacturing and construction. Retail employment did not increase heading into the holiday season, he said, but flattened out after months of declines.

The health care, education and government sectors added most of the jobs. Tweedy noted that new jobs at Northern Quest Casino, which is adding staff as the opening of its new hotel approaches, accounts for much of the government hiring. The casino is owned by the Kalispel Tribe of Indians.

In neighboring counties, the unemployment rates for October were: Whitman, 4.4 percent; Pend Oreille, 11.3 percent; Stevens, 10.5 percent; and Lincoln, 7.2 percent.

The rate in Kootenai County, reported earlier this month by the state Department of Labor, was 11.1 percent.

Two comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  liarsinnews on November 18 at 7:58 a.m.

  2+2=5

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  edmitch on November 18 at 9:58 a.m.

  This seems to be a newer version of yesterday’s online story. In the WA State employment data work sheet, there was a net of 100 new non-farm private sector jobs added, plus 3,100 government jobs. 97% of the job growth came from the government (taxpayers). Simultaneously, Spokane County has issued layoff notices. This is not a good jobs report for Spokane.

  Barring a miracle in the overall economy, the best solution is innovation to create new solutions to real problems. However, innovative ideas that jut end up being manufactured off shore are not useful innovations when they prop up some other economy rather than our own. It would not do us any good, for example, to invent a great new business here in Spokane but then export the work to Boise or Seattle.

  We must provide an environment that encourages innovation across all possible activities - and not the pre-selected, top-down central government planning model of “industrial clusters” chosen for Spokane by the State.

  We must work with what we have, not what we wish we had. The region’s previous goal of a high tech economy faded away (high tech is no longer a goal listed in the 2008 Greater Spokane economic strategy document - but it was listed as recently as about 2005) and we are now on to “we will be a world class bio-tech and bioscience research center”. That has as much likelihood to succeed as did high tech. We cannot compete with the 300+ firms in the SF Bay area, their millions of square feet of vacant and available wet lab space, their existing supply of people and the research programs of several universities. Nor are we likely to compete with Seattle in a field that hires enormous numbers of graduate trained scientists (in Spokane there are just 2 Masters in science degree programs and no doctorates in biotech fields). Nor will we compete with China which is rapidly expanding in this area with a stated goal to own the bio tech sector.

  Instead, as stated in the previous paragraph, we need to work with what we have. We need to create a culture of innovation - which means taking risks - and ambition. We need to innovate in areas that are not already well established - biotech and high tech are the past. Smart Grid comes to mind - no one yet owns this technology and this area has several advantages (Itron, Avista, WSU, PNNL, Schweitzer). The area has an agriculture heritage and economy - another opportunity to create new solutions based on what we have.

  But innovation should not be restricted to tech or bio tech. A more efficient way to do auto repair, or metal fabrication or run a hair salon is innovation that could expand into a chain of businesses and which may be more appropriate to the environment we have here in Spokane.

  Innovation does not have to be “tech” - and the State’s top down plan for Spokane may cause more harm than good by diverting resources onto yet another “great idea” that fades away in 5 to 10 years, just like tech did.

  The state and local government, and the community, would be better off providing an environment and a supportive culture for entrepreneurs across a spectrum of business activities - working with what we actually have rather than endless chasing of pie-in-the-sky dreams.

  There are ways to foster and encourage invention - most of which the private sector should do . But enough of a long post for now.