Looking at unemployment trends today, I found brand new numbers on unemployment by city as of November. As usual, British Columbia’s statistics agency was quicker to release its numbers.
So now we can get a picture of how the Great Recession is shaking out, one year after it was acknowledged as underway—and eleven months after federal stimulus spending was approved in Washington, DC.
Unemployment is a key Cascadia Scorecard economy indicator, because opportunities for meaningful, living-wage work are essential to shared, sustainable prosperity.
The numbers are after the jump, followed by some observations.
| Cascadia’s Unemployment Rates, November 2009, by Metropolitan Statistical Area | Rate |
|---|---|
| Kelowna, BC | 5.6 |
| Missoula, MT | 6.1 |
| Idaho Falls, ID | 6.4 |
| Kamloops, BC | 6.7 |
| Victoria, BC | 7.1 |
| Vancouver, BC | 7.2 |
| Corvallis, OR | 7.3 |
| Kennewick-Pasco-Richland, WA | 7.3 |
| Abbotsford, BC | 7.4 |
| Olympia, WA | 7.4 |
| Bremerton-Silverdale, WA | 7.5 |
| Pocatello, ID | 7.9 |
| Bellingham, WA | 8.1 |
| Nanaimo, BC | 8.3 |
| Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, WA | 8.5 |
| Spokane, WA | 8.7 |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | 8.8 |
| United States | 9.4 |
| Yakima, WA | 9.5 |
| Boise City-Nampa, ID | 10.1 |
| Coeur d’Alene, ID | 10.1 |
| Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA | 10.1 |
| Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA | 10.3 |
| Salem, OR | 10.7 |
| Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA | 10.8 |
| Eugene-Springfield, OR | 11.0 |
| Medford, OR | 11.5 |
| Prince George, BC | 12.3 |
| Longview, WA | 12.9 |
| Bend, OR | 14.0 |
(Data are not seasonally adjusted.)
I have no grand insights to impart today, but here are some notes:
- Go east, young man? The lowest unemployment is in eastern parts of the Northwest, such as Missoula, Montana, and Kelowna, British Columbia.
- Bend down. The central Oregon outdoors Mecca—long driven by a real-estate boom—now boasts the highest unemployment rate of any metro area in the Pacific Northwest.
- Learn, govern or saw? University towns and capital cities, such as Corvallis, Bellingham, Olympia, and Victoria, are weathering the storm better than wood-products manufacturing cities such as Prince George, BC, and Longview, Washington.
- Oregon: ouch! British Columbian cities in general are suffering far less than Oregon metros, with Washington sandwiched between. (The situation hasn’t changed since Eric blogged this, about Google’s easy-to-use tool for charting unemployment rates. )
- Big gap. Bend’s unemployment rate is more than twice as high as Missoula’s. Economic theory says that workers will relocate from Bend to Missoula, until the rates reach a new equilibrium. But dual-earner households, the mortgage crisis, and perhaps a growing commitment to place are making us less mobile than in times past, according to this AP article. (Update, 1/11/10: Here are two newe links for this last point, from Bloomberg and the New York Times.)
