Chelan, Douglas Counties Employment Numbers Steadily Inch Back to Pre-Pandemic Figures

Wenatchee Metropolitan Statistical Area is seeing improvement in employment and unemployment figures in comparison to 2020 during the height of the pandemic. The Wenatchee MSA envelopes Chelan and Douglas counties.

The August 2021 nonfarm employment job tally is growing closer to where the two county area was prior to the pandemic in 2019. Nonfarm employment for August 2021 totaled 47,000 jobs and in August 2019 there were 47,200 nonfarm job tallied. Nonfarm employment numbers for August 2020 was a little over 44,000 jobs.

"The economy hasn't quite recovered all those jobs from August 2019, but the trend is moving in the right direction," said Don Meseck, regional economist.

Another promising stat is the unemployment rate year over year for August 2020 and August 2021. The unemployment rate declined from 8.6% to 4.3% between August 2020 and August 2021. In August 2019, the unemployment rate was at 4.1%.

"We're in the right direction, we're just not there yet," said Meseck.