Signals mixed for Clark County economy

laboratory

Southwest Washington’s labor market has continued to grow, with the county adding more than a thousand jobs in November despite a slight rise in unemployment.

The region’s employment base has grown faster than the state, federal, Seattle and Portland labor markets.

In his October newsletter, regional economist Scott Bailey pointed out that nationally business was continuing to head in a positive direction at that time. Gross domestic product, total personal income, industrial production, retail and food service sales and the labor market, all measures tracked by the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Recession Committee, were continuing to grow, despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to tame inflation by raising interest rates.

Corporate profits, Bailey mentioned in his newsletter, have boomed since the 2012-2019 average, being just shy of 50 percent higher in the third quarter of 2022. However, he noted, profits were less than in the second quarter of 2022.

Inflation is a concern locally and nationally. The US consumer price index rose 7.1 percent between November 2021 and November 2022, then ticked up only 0.1 percent over October. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it was the smallest year-over-year increase since December 2021.

The question remains, where will inflation go from here?