Clark County gained 500 jobs in November

Clark Country gained about 500 jobs in November, continuing a slow economic recovery.

But the county has yet to recover even half of the 19,700 jobs lost from February to April as the coronavirus pandemic took hold of the local economy.

“We have 7,200 (jobs) back from that,” said Scott Bailey, the state’s regional economist for Southwest Washington. “That’s 36 percent.”

Most of November’s increases, about 500 jobs, came from retail trade as stores hired for the holiday shopping season. Health care also expanded by 200 jobs. But some of the increases were offset by seasonal losses in construction and manufacturing.

The county’s unemployment rate sat at 7 percent in November, with about a percentage point of possible discrepancy in the actual rate, Bailey said.

Weekly unemployment insurance claims filed from Clark County show that jobs in leisure and hospitality, which includes restaurants and hotels, are still in a deep hole, Bailey said. Other losing sectors include the “other services” category, including hair salons, and K-12 public education. Manufacturing has shown little change in job sway since the pandemic began.

Bailey expects December’s employment to go up for seasonal reasons, but said the local job market won’t start seeing substantial improvements until vaccines are accessible.

“I think it’s going to be pretty sluggish until (there are) widespread vaccines,” he said.