State employment data shows that a significant number of non-farm Okanogan County jobs have simply gone away this year, as most industries in the county are contracting. Even the government sector has significantly contracted this year – only state and local government positions though, as Federal government jobs only grew this year.

In order to better compare the impact of this year’s coronavirus pandemic policies on employment in the county, we compared the average of 2019, 2018, and 2017 years with the same data from 2020.

This analysis shows that an average of 657 jobs evaporated in the month of October 2020, a 5.5% decrease in total non-farm jobs. Directly compared to last year, this is down 700 jobs in October.

The latest complete data available, also shows that an average of 700 jobs have vaporized in November, a 5.7% decrease in total non-farm jobs. It is down a direct 720 jobs from last year.

While county unemployment claims are currently running a fair bit higher than this summer, and current business and employment conditions are concerning, the unemployment data doesn’t appear at first glance to be quite as alarming as earlier in 2020, for March, April and May when initial unemployment claims in the county spiked into the stratosphere due to “non-essential” business shutdowns.

When compared to the same period in 2019, there’s nearly a 37 percent increase in 2020 initial unemployment claims in Okanogan County averaged over the 5 weeks between week 46, the week immediately following Governor Inslee’s new business restrictions, and week 50, the latest data available at this time.

When digging deeper into the state employment data, there is reason for growing concern. Everyone in the county should be concerned that some 700 jobs that have existed for the three years previous, seem to have now disappeared. Will we be able to find them again?