Kitsap Business and Economy

By Rachel Pritchett
rpritchett@kitsapsun.com
Unemployment in Kitsap County rose to 8.3 percent in January, making the first month of 2010 one of the worst Januarys ever for joblessness.
The rate was up from December’s
7.4 percent, according to the Washington Department of Employment Security.
About 10,360 people in Kitsap were seeking work in January, up from 8,600 people in January 2009.
In January, some 2,468 piled into the local WorkSource employment center, where they perused job listings and sought out training. It was one of the center’s busiest months in a year, according to manager Margaret Hess.
Thirteen hundred jobs were lost in Kitsap in January. Of those, 400 were in retail and wholesale trade and 300 were in construction. Another 200 were lost each in government and hospitality. Kitsap’s total employment was about 81,400.
In the past year, 2,600 jobs have been lost in Kitsap — about 1,000 in construction and another 700 in retail and wholesale trade.
Kitsap Lumber and Hardware straddles the two hardest-hit sectors, construction and retail. Yet Chris Funke, who has owned the Navy Yard City business for 31 years, says he’s hanging on, and not by waiting for contractors to stop by.
Funke instead caters to do-it-yourselfers. He has expanded his plumbing repair services and sells a lot of stoves and fireplaces, thanks to new stimulus incentives.
“We are a jack of all trades and a master of none,” he said.
Funke, nonetheless, had to reduce his staff by several people.
Charles Fong, manager of Bubble Island, a smoothie and milkshake shop at Kitsap Mall, also has had to reduce his staff. He has taken on much of the load himself and is at the store from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week.
“Throughout the mall, everybody’s hurting,” Fong said. January’s 8.3 percent unemployment rate was by far the highest for any January at least since 1990, according to state archives.
The past 10 years saw only one month with a higher unemployment rate — March 2009, when it was 8.4 percent.
“So we’re definitely in some uncharted territory for Kitsap County, sorry to say,” said Jim Vleming, a state economist specializing in Kitsap County.
Some 1,654 people in Kitsap County signed up for unemployment insurance in January, joining 4,355 already receiving the assistance checks.
Unlike Kitsap County, Washington state’s unemployment rate for January, 9.3 percent, was almost unchanged from December’s 9.2 percent.
And while Kitsap lost jobs, the state actually gained 12,400 jobs, led by retail, education and health services and construction.
It was the first jobs gain for the state since 2008.
“This is a positive sign for Washington state,” Gov. Chris Gregoire said.
Employment security Commissioner Karen Lee agreed. “It’s encouraging to see jobs finally coming back,” she said.
The national jobless rate for January was 9.7 percent.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at 12:06 pm by Rachel Pritchett and is filed under Uncatagorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.