Economist talks Clatskanie numbers with Chamber

During the monthly Clatskanie Chamber of Commerce meeting last Thursday, Workforce Economist Shaun Barrick, representing the State of Oregon Employment Department, gave a presentation regarding labor market information and economic updates and indicators specific to Clatskanie. “Most of my time is spent doing data requests,” said Barrick. “A business owner, chamber group, government official, anybody who has a question, (if) they need some data, they give me a call and I can help them out.”

Discussing themes like the decline in unemployment, population growth, and even the number of college degree holders in Clatskanie, Barrick saw a “steady” growth in not only jobs but people themselves. “Anytime I see something above the state number, then I’m pretty happy with that, especially in the rural areas,” he said. “It just means that people are coming here and then they’re staying.”

A 2024 population reading of 1,791 showed a 1.1 percent growth for Clatskanie, which is, as Barrick noted, “a little bit faster than Columbia County,” which grew by .7 percent from 2023 to 2024. Statistics also showed manufacturing to be the largest industry for Clatskanie residents with a rate of 24 percent, followed closely by 22 percent for educational services, healthcare and social assistance.

One area of interest to Barrick and his team was the discrepancy between Clatskanie, Columbia County, and Oregon as a state with respect to college-degree holders, as Clatskanie’s average wages are higher than that of the state for those with or even less than a high-school education. “This tells me the band of wages in Clatskanie is a little bit tighter than the state average where there’s less low-wage workers here,” said Barrick. “There’s also less incredibly high earners. There’s a lot more people who are able to make good wages in a slightly tighter way...That’s not something you see in most communities.”

Perhaps the most encouraging findings were a 2.7 percent increase in employment from December of 2023 to December of 2024 and a 20.7 percent decrease statewide with respect to job vacancies. Barrick found the biggest difference between job vacancies now and before the pandemic are the wages associated. “The average wage for the jobs that are open right now are a little over $25,” he said. “Back in 2018, it was closer to $18. Increases in wages, because of inflation, could be a lot of that, but a lot of that, too, is that some of those low-paying jobs have disappeared, and we’re seeing a surge in white collar unemployment where there’s a lot of people who are trying to hire for these higher-paying job and they’re having a hard time doing it. That was kind of the big shift last year in 2024 in unemployment. We’re seeing people (who), instead of fighting for low-wage workers, they’re fighting for high-wage workers.”

Barrick noted the employment department could also help answer questions relating to areas like forest sector employment, occupational wage ranges, employment change, and demographic data.

For more info on the latest Oregon economic data, visit qualityinfo.org.