The latest Wenatchee labor report for July reports the lowest unemployment rate ever recorded in Wenatchee’s electronic history.

This labor report compares the Wenatchee labor force between July of 2021 and 2022, and between July of 2019 and 2022.

The local unemployment rate was at 3.1 percent. 

However, Wenatchee’s labor force has slowly been shrinking, with the percentage of workers being smaller compared to 2019.

There are currently 74,349 residents in Wenatchee’s labor pool, versus the 77,885 residents in July of 2019. That is a -4.5 percent downturn.

Non-farm related work has been expanding from April 2021 through July 2022, increasing from 47,300 jobs to 48,800 jobs.

Jobs within construction have increased the most, along with jobs in education and healthcare. Food service and hospitality jobs received a modest increase in the number of jobs compared to pre-COVID numbers from 2019.

The agricultural industry has seen a downturn in influence in both Chelan and Douglas County in the last decade.

In both Chelan and Douglas counties, the percentage of agricultural jobs compared to non-farm jobs have hovered around 19 percent, slowly decreasing in the last three years.

Factors to this downturn trend may stem from automation, the conversion of seasonal jobs to year-round jobs, and the increase of H-2A agricultural labor.

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