Grant County Labor Area Summary

The Washington Employment Security Department released the latest labor area summary. This summary analyzes the economies of Washington State and focuses on the comparison from May 2019 to May 2018 as well as the annual yearly change from 2017 to 2018.

In Grant County the average annual unemployment rate dipped from 6.3 percent in 2017 to 6.2 percent in 2018. This is the lowest average annual unemployment rate in the County since electronic records were implemented at the Washington State Employment Security Department in 1990.

Grant County’s strong economy was able to add 1,370 new jobs to the area between 2017 and 2018, which is an average of 4.7 percent increase. This amount is almost double to that of Washington State’s 2.5 percent increase during the same time period.

We also saw another increase in population of 2.9 percent from 2017 to 2018. Over the last seven years, 2010 to 2017, Grant County saw an increase in population of 6.8 percent.
The top five industries in Grant County are: Agriculture, Local government, Manufacturing, Retail and Health Services. With the diversification of Grant County, it is easy to see why the economy continues to grow.