By Theresa Goffredo
Herald Writer
EVERETT — The central Puget Sound region continued to see strong job growth in 1999 and 2000, but Everett has proved to be the weakling during that period, losing more jobs than any other city in the region.
Everett’s Achilles’ heal is Boeing.
In the 13 months from March 1999 to the end of March 2000, Everett lost 6,363 jobs. Mukilteo lost 436 jobs, and Edmonds lost 328 jobs in that same time, according to the latest data released by the Puget Sound Regional Council.
Overall, the central Puget Sound region showed a gain of nearly 43,000 jobs. Lynnwood was the Snohomish County city with the greatest gain, with 556 jobs tallied during that period, the council reported.
The fact that Everett pulled the short straw and suffered the greatest job losses surprised Kristen Koch, an assistant planner with the Puget Sound Regional Council. The council is a planning agency that deals with growth management, economics and transportation issues in Snohomish, King, Kitsap and Pierce counties.
"Because the population in Snohomish County has grown so much, I would have thought more jobs were going in there," Koch said.
The most recent employment data doesn’t reflect the spiraling loss of production Boeing has felt since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The aerospace giant was downsizing its workforce before the planes struck the World Trade Center towers in New York, Koch said.
However, looking at such a narrow window of time can yield a misleading picture of Everett’s economic trends, Roberta Pauer, a state labor economist, said.
The pattern of employment in the Puget Sound region follows a business cycle," Pauer said. "To look at the city of Everett over a short time period can be misleading and in no sense reflects the long-term trends of the city."
For that long-term look, it’s best to glance over a 10- to 15-year period, Pauer said.
Nonetheless, jobs in Snohomish County’s aircraft and parts sector — 90 percent of which is Boeing — dropped significantly during the 1999 to 2000 time period when the data was collected, Pauer said.
In January 1999, aircraft and parts workers accounted for 40,000 jobs. By the time August 2000 rolled around, those jobs had fallen to 30,000. And although the rest of Snohomish County’s economy was expanding, it wasn’t expanding enough to accommodate for the loss of 10,000 jobs, Pauer said.
Pauer said recessions are temporary phases, and when the region comes out of it and Boeing production starts up again, Everett’s workforce will probably start on the upswing.
Meanwhile, city officials have dealt with the recession by imposing a hiring freeze and not spending any of the city’s operating budget of $92.9 million on new projects. No layoffs are expected, because the city has healthy reserve accounts. But the city wasn’t able to hire any new police officers this year, falling below the city’s goal of two police officers for every 1,000 residents.
City council member Dale Pope, chairman of the city’s finance committee, says Everett has done very well by watching its budget, and could be much worse off. He told the story about a man he met recently at a National League of Cities conference who was from a city in Virginia that had to borrow money to make the payroll.
"I look at the positive," Pope said. "Boeing, they are up and down and it appears they have a flattened economy and it’s starting to swing back. The business people I talk to, they say it’s real slow, but they see it starting to swing back."
You can call Herald Writer Theresa Goffredo at 425-339-3097
or send e-mail to goffredo@heraldnet.com.
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