Clark County reports gaining 800 jobs in July

The Clark County labor market in July gained about 800 jobs, putting “a small dent in the daunting over-the-year deficit of 15,600 jobs,” said Scott Bailey, regional economist for Southwest Washington.

It was also a fairly small increase compared with June, when 5,800 jobs were added.

“It’s now tapering down to much slower employment gains,” Bailey said.

Month over month, Clark County is seeing a steady improvement with fewer continued unemployment claims, even though the employment rate for July increased to 11.7 percent. Bailey said that the number is calculated by an imperfect national model, and he suspects the employment rate actually decreased from June to July. (June’s unemployment was 10.3 percent, revised upward from last month.)

“On the ground, it looks like things got better,” he said.

Bailey said it’s too early to try to predict when the county might return to pre-pandemic employment numbers.

The only sector in Clark County with year-over-year job growth was financial services, up 300 jobs, or 3.2 percent.

“It seems to be one industry that’s just less impacted,” Bailey said. “I presume is partly because you can do virtual banking. It’s less impacted than in-person services compared to others.”

In July, construction added 300 jobs in Clark County, which is expected to continue to grow in September and October, Bailey said. Professional and business services gained 400 jobs, and retailers gained 200 jobs.

Private education fell by 200 jobs, which can be attributed to normal seasonal layoffs. Government employment also dropped by 200 jobs.

“I would expect to see modest improvements going forward, barring budget impacts from education,” Bailey said. “Vancouver school district sees its budget and staff as a moving target. We’ll see in September how that staffing works out.”