We've reported the good news about the June employment numbers for Chelan and Douglas Counties, that the latest jobless number is at two-point-nine percent, a historic low. But there's another number that perplexes Regional Labor Economist Don Meseck, and that's the lower numbers in the civilian labor force, which dropped almost two thousand from June 2022, when the labor force numbered just over 69-thousand. Last month, it numbered 67,366. Meseck says the drop is a bit confusing:
Meseck says it'll take future reports to determine if it's a trend:
So Meseck says that number could be a fluke. The two-point-nine percent unemployment number compares with three-point-two percent back in May, and four-point-four percent last June.