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1.3.7 Net Jobs Created at 25% Higher Earnings Than Last Years Average Annual Wage
Why is this important?
Statistics on new hires are an important measure of the health of any local or regional economy. Job creation is one of the key goals of economic policy, at the local, state, or national level. Information on new hires is used by the public and private sectors to negotiate labor contracts, forecast tax revenue, evaluate a region’s economic health, and guide decisions on sales and inventories.
Data on new hires alone, unfortunately, are not available at the county level. Consequently, this indicator uses a net number, total change in the annual average number of people employed from one year to the next, accounting for both hires and separations from the labor force.
Looking at job growth alone provides valuable insight into the direction and strength of an economy. However, simply looking at the number of jobs created doesn’t provide much insight into the ability of job growth to raise overall living standards for those who do work. Extracting the number of new jobs created that pay higher than the average wage of all jobs tells us more about the quality of the jobs being created.
A positive number represents net job growth, while a negative number represents net job losses during the year.
This indicator measures the number and annual growth rate of net jobs created paying 25% above the average annual wage of the previous year in Walla Walla county combined. The series is available only at the metro level. Washington State is offered as a benchmark.
Where are we?
From one year to the next, the number of net jobs created in Walla Walla County that paid 25% more than the average annual wage from:
- 2021 to 2022 was -1,863.
- 2022 to 2023 was +96.
The annual growth rate of jobs created from 2022 to 2023 that paid 25% more than the average annual wage in:
- Walla Walla County was -6.4%, decreasing from -2.1% from 2016 to 2017.
- Washington State was 1.3%, decreasing from 2.5% from 2016 to 2017.
Data Sources
Average Annual Wages: Washington State Employment Security Department: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages
- Under “Recent Excel Files”, select the appropriate year.
- Select the appropriate county in the Excel sheet.
- Under Average Annual Wage (column S), you'll want to take that number and multiply it by 125%. Whatever that outcome is, you'll add up the total amount of Average Annual Employment (column R) with wages greater than or equal to the (Average Annual Wage + 25%). You will subtract the amount of the previous year's employment from this year's, to get the net jobs created that paid 25% more than the average annual wage.
Notes:
1) Numbers are based on a state average annual wage.
2) State data do not include farm workers, self-employed or part-time workers.
3) Jobs are registered as full-time equivalents (FTE) only, meaning two 20-hour per week workers are counted as one worker.
4) This series also does not include earnings of the military and students living or employed on a college campus.
