by Dr. Kelley Cullen
Businesses in modern, dynamic economies regularly experience employee turnover, making the tracking of new hires and separations at the county level challenging. But because it is so important to understand what is happening with the workforce, economists are forced to rely on more aggregate measures of job creation.
Using data from the Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages (QCEW), WWT 1.3.3 Net Jobs Created & Annual Growth Rate provides a year-over-year comparison of total levels of county employment to help get a sense of job gains/losses.
After four years of steady job growth (post-pandemic) that had added over 1,200 jobs cumulatively, the county saw a marked drop of over 750 jobs in 2025 compared to the previous year, 2024. This largest single-year drop in the number of jobs in the past two decades represents a 2.6% annual reduction in total employment across the county and brought total employment in the county back to just over 28,000 and below what it was during the recovery of 2021-22. In comparison, the state saw an increase of 0.25% in total employment from 2024 to 2025.
Looking at nearby counties reveals that other counties with a relatively larger agricultural sector such as Grant, Whitman and Yakima also saw contractions in net jobs, whereas urban centers such as Spokane, Benton & Franklin had positive net jobs created from 2024 to 2025.
The QCEW data does provide a little more detail in providing disaggregation by industrial codes (NAICS). Inspection of the annual data from 2024 and 2025 suggests that the greatest loss in jobs occurred in crop production. Specifically, apple orchards reported using over 700 fewer county workers in 2025 than the previous year.
While retirements and changes in land use could certainly be driving some of the loss of orchard jobs, consolidations / acquisitions such as the absorption of the Broetje Orchards (near Prescott) by FirstFruits Farms can be especially problematic for economists to track. As the number of firms shrinks, data may be suppressed for proprietary reasons. Thus, it is wholly possible that operations are ongoing, but the number of employees is not being released to the public.
There is a little bit of good news that can be gleaned from the QCEW data. From 2024 to 2025, the county added over 400 jobs that paid earnings that are 25% higher than the previous year’s average annual wage. This represents 4% more jobs at higher wages than the previous year. In contrast, the state, on average, saw fewer jobs at 25% higher earnings than the previous year’s average annual wage, a loss of -0.5%. WWT 1.3.7 Net Jobs Created at 25% Higher Earnings provides more insight into the growth of higher paying jobs around the county.
While there is hope that the loss of jobs in crop production last year might not be as drastic as it looks on paper, employment numbers for the first half of 2026 are looking a bit rocky, according to the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) at the Washington Employment Security Division (ESD). Since the start of the year, Walla Walla County has seen a decrease of another 250 jobs from January to June of 2026. And since the apple harvest is still 6-8 weeks out, it is unlikely all these job losses can be attributed to county orchards.