Nobel Prize winner to speak at Gonzaga

Gonzaga University’s School of Business Administration has selected labor economist David Card as a keynote speaker for its annual economic symposium.

Card, a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, won a 2021 Nobel Memorial Prize in economic sciences for his “empirical contributions to labor economics.”

Card is also Gonzaga University’s Jundt Visiting Chair of Economics and director of the labor studies program at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Gonzaga’s economic symposium will be held April 13 at the Davenport Grand Hotel, beginning with a networking social at 11 a.m. Individual tickets are $100 and can be purchased at: www.gonzaga.edu/school-of-business-administration/news-events/econ-symp-card.

Area jobless rate is unchanged

Spokane County’s unemployment rate held steady at 5.4% in February, compared to a month prior.

The Spokane metropolitan statistical area, which includes Spokane, Stevens and Pend Oreille counties, added 3,500 nonfarm jobs, while private sector jobs rose by 3,400 in February, according to non-seasonally adjusted data from the Washington state Employment Security Department.

Out of all industries in the Spokane MSA, tThe service providing sector gained the greatest number of jobs with 3,100 last month.

The education and health services sector gained 2,400 jobs and the local government sector added 500 jobs. The food services and drinking places and manufacturing sectors each gained 300 jobs.

The county’s unemployment rate was 5.4% in January and 7.4% in February 2021.

From staff reports