Survey shows strong job growth in region

Spokane, Seattle and Tacoma together generated about 36,000 jobs over the past 12 months, a survey by Arizona State University has found.

The numbers support recent studies by state and regional economists showing Spokane’s and Washington’s economies have rebounded from the 2001-2003 downturn.

The Blue Chip Job Growth report, produced monthly by ASU economists, tracks job growth among 290 metropolitan areas in the United States.

Last July, Spokane ranked 76th among those cities in terms of percentage job growth. This July it moved up to 64th. Two years ago, Spokane was a distant 254th.

Tacoma went from 87th a year ago to 15th on the list. And Seattle (combined in this study with Bellevue and Everett), moved from 195th to 77th in the country.

The rankings are based on percentage job growth over the past 12 months. In the past year, Spokane’s employment grew by nearly 2 percent, or 3,900 jobs. Tacoma’s growth was 3.4 percent, or 8,500 jobs. Seattle’s employment grew by 1.7 percent, or 23,500 jobs.

The ASU job growth study doesn’t include North Idaho. Boise’s job growth was an impressive 3.9 percent, or 9,000 jobs added over the past 12 months.

The listings don’t identify whether the jobs are full-time. ASU relies on federal job data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Avista Corp. Economist Randy Barcus said the ASU study confirms his belief that the area’s economy has been humming in 2004. Spokane’s job growth has been fueled by a booming housing and construction industry, he said.

“What props up both Spokane and Tacoma has been construction jobs,” he said. He’s found that new-construction permits for residences and apartments in Spokane and Kootenai County have grown 32 percent this year compared with 2003.

Avista isn’t able to track commercial construction, but Barcus said that segment of construction in this area has also rebounded in the past 12 months.

“We’re smoking, when it comes to new construction,” he said.

ASU’s study also ranks states by their job growth. Nevada now leads the nation in percentage job growth, followed by Florida, Arizona, Hawaii, Wyoming, Virginia and New Mexico.

Idaho ranked ninth with 1.2 percent job growth, while Washington ranked 10th with a 1.1 percent gain in jobs.

For all cities with populations over 1 million, the ASU study said the leaders were: Fairfax-Arlington, Va.; St. Louis; and Washington, D.C.

For smaller cities, the leaders in job growth were Putnam County, N.Y.; Kokomo, Ind.; and Laredo, Texas.