Market News

Hawaii’s economy offered a mixed bag of growth in the fourth quarter of 2018. Employment declined 1.4% but the unemployment rate was a healthy 2.3%. Year-over-year, the economy has shed 9,300 jobs, and annual job gains have been negative for the past three months. On the Big Island, employment growth dropped 2.6% and has been negative for the past five months. That said, there are 85,800...

Oregon added 30,800 new jobs in 2018, representing an annual growth rate of 1.6%. Though the job growth rate norm for the past 20 years has been 2% or more, this slowdown does not concern me. It’s to be expected at this stage in the economic cycle. The Southwest Washington market (Clark, Cowlitz, Skamania, and Klickitat counties) added 6,680 new jobs over the past 12 months, which represents...

Job growth in Idaho slowed in the fall of 2018 but the state added 13,200 new jobs over the past 12 months, representing an annual growth rate of 1.8%. In November, the state unemployment rate was 2.6%, down from 3% a year ago. The state remains at full employment, which explains why we are seeing a slowdown in employment growth. I fully anticipate that the state will return to...

The Washington State economy continues to add jobs at an above-average rate, though the pace of growth is starting to slow as the business cycle matures. Over the past 12 months, the state added 96,600 new jobs, representing an annual growth rate of 2.9% — well above the national rate of 1.7%. Private sector employment gains continue to be quite strong, increasing at an annual rate of 3.6%...