Wenatchee’s August Labor Report Sees Growing Trend in Shrinking Labor Pool

Wenatchee’s Labor Report for August was recently released, illustrating a slight increase in the unemployment rate and the local labor pool slowly draining this year.

The unemployment rate rose to 4.4 percent, which is a jump from July’s rate at 3.1 percent

The labor force has seen 447 fewer Chelan or Douglas County residents in August compared to last year, with a -0.6 percent decrease.

This indicates that Wenatchee’s labor pool shrank in the last four months compared to the labor pool pre-pandemic.

Nonfarm work has expanded, with 1,200 more jobs compared to 3 years ago.

Construction jobs have increased between Dec. 2020 to July of 2022 before shrinking slightly this August.

Local education and health services jobs grew 400 jobs with a 5.1 percent.

The leisure and hospitality industry increased by 100 jobs with a 1.4 percent upturn. However, the local leisure and hospitality industry still has not fully recovered from the pandemic, which led to the mass layoff trend in 2020.

The median sales price on a home grew to $500,000 in August 2022 compared to last year.

There was also 46 fewer closed sales on single family homes or condominiums from Jan. 2022 to Aug. 2022 compared to last year, with a -6.9 percent downturn.

The number of active listings skyrocketed with a 174.2 percent increase, from 62 listings in August 2021 to 170 in August 2022.