Tri-City unemployment up slightly but job growth still going strong

Several new schools opened throughout the Tri-Cities this fall and student enrollments grew, which meant school districts had to hire more staff.

More stores and restaurants have opened from Queensgate to Southridge, meaning more clerks, cooks and wait staff are employed.

Trios opened a new medical office building care center next to its hospital in Southridge. Kadlec will open a $1.5 million clinic in west Kennewick at Clearwater Avenue and Steptoe Street in about a year but its ongoing hospital expansion is where the bulk of its new employees will be added in coming years.

“This health care thing has gone crazy,” said Jim Hall, Kadlec’s spokesman.

Even as winter grasps the region, heralding the holiday season and the traditional contraction of jobs as warm-weather employment fade away, the Mid-Columbia economy is still booming. Nonfarm employment in the region was at 108,700 jobs in October, according to the latest numbers from the Washington Employment Security Department. That’s one of the highest jobs marks the Mid-Columbia has seen since before the Great Recession.

The region’s unemployment did climb slightly in October to 5.6 percent, up from 5.4 percent in September. But with multiple sectors showing growth, from manufacturing and retail to hospitality and health care, the economy could stay hot a little further into the winter than usual.

“I’m not seeing any slowdowns,” said regional economist Ajsa Suljic.

Overall, the Tri-Cities boasted 5,500 more jobs than it did at this time last year. The region added thousands of jobs each month in the beginning of 2015, hitting a peak of 109,200 nonfarm positions in June. But where in previous years job numbers declined, the Tri-Cities has maintained more than 108,000 nonfarm jobs through the rest of the year.

Truck drivers and utility workers are leading job growth in the region with the addition of 900 positions in the past year. Manufacturing follows with 700 new jobs, then retail and the hospitality industry with gains of 600 positions each. Education and health services have added 500 positions and there’s about 400 additional construction workers in the region compared to 2014. Government positions have also added 400 people.

Only financial activities and jobs associated with work on the Hanford site saw declines of 400 and 300 positions, respectively. Suljic says that is telling and shows that the region’s economy is breaking away from the boom-and-bust cycles previously affecting the Tri-Cities whenever workers at the site were downsized.

“Everything now is dependent on population demand,” Suljic said.

Hall said that growth in the health care industry is partly dependent on an aging population and diversification of services. Regional draw also contributes, as Kadlec pulls patients from Moses Lake to Baker City, bringing money into the metropolitan area.

The region still has an unemployment rate higher than the state’s 5 percent average. Walla Walla County has 4.4 percent unemployment, Adams has 5 percent, Grant 5.3 percent and Yakima, 6 percent.

But the area’s population has reached a point where it will be hard to stop the momentum it’s already generating, Suljic said.

This story was originally published November 24, 2015 at 5:05 PM with the headline "Tri-City unemployment up slightly but job growth still going strong."