State’s rural jobless rates historically lag behind urban counties

Washington’s unemployment is hitting a major low, but the state’s rural counties — including Benton and Franklin — are not doing as well as their urban counterparts.

That’s because rural counties, which have huge agricultural presences, have less diversified industrial economies than cities, said Asja Suljic, regional labor economist for the Washington Employment Security Department.

Also, rural counties have bigger percentages than urban counties of workers 55 or older — 27.8 percent to 23.7 percent in 2016. Thirty-one of the state’s 39 counties are classified as rural due to their population densities.

Washington’s statewide unemployment rate in 2016 was 5.1 percent, which dropped to 4.5 percent last June. Much of the current economic expansion is driven by job growth in the state’s major urban centers, according to an ESD report.

Meanwhile, in 2016, Benton County’s unemployment rate was 6.5 percent, and Franklin County’s rate was 7.6 percent.

Other 2016 jobless rates were Yakima County, 8 percent; Grant County, 7.4 percent; Adams County, 6.8 percent; and Walla Walla County, 5.6 percent.

The average jobless rates in Washington’s rural counties from 2012-16 was 8.2 percent, and the average rate in the eight urban counties was 6 percent during the same period, according to state figures.

During this time, the state’s rural work force grew 0.4 percent a year, while the urban counties’ work forces grew 1.5 percent annually from 2012-16, according to federal figures.

Showing the lack of diversity in rural Washington, more than 45 percent of rural counties’ employment is in health care, social services, retail, agriculture and education. These fields accounted for about 35 percent of the work forces in the urban counties.

In a related economic matter, the same state figures noted that there is also a significant difference in median house prices in rural and urban counties and how much they increase. A median price is where 50 percent of the prices are above the figure and 50 percent are below the figure.

From 2012-16, urban counties’ median house prices went from $237,700 to $325,625. In the same period, rural median house prices grew from $173,632 to $219,468.

In the Mid-Columbia from 2012-16, Benton and Franklin counties’ median house prices went from $183,800 to $222,800. For comparison, King County’s median house price increased from $367,700 to $566,200.

To learn more about wage differences between Washington's rural and urban counties visit tricitiesbusinessnews.com/2017/11/15/wages