PORT TOWNSEND — A website’s designation of Port Townsend as the worst place in Washington state to find a job on a list that also includes Sequim and Port Angeles has drawn criticism from those who are seeking to develop the business climate.
“We have the highest percentages of entrepreneurs in the state,” said Team Jefferson CEO Peter Quinn.
“People don’t come here to find jobs but to create them.”
Said Teresa Verraes, Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce executive director: “We have people who are actively looking for ways that people can plug into the community to keep them engaged and help them to find employment.
“People may not find something right away,” she said, “but they get to live their dream.”
Port Townsend was rated first, Sequim fifth and Port Angeles sixth on the list published by Zippia, a San Francisco-based website for career planning and employment at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-worst.
All three North Olympic Peninsula towns have rated high on Internet “best of” lists for charm, tourist attractions, retirement comfort, outdoor activities and stunning natural beauty.
Zippia, a new company that plans a full launch in December, saw it differently.
“Washington, when considered as a whole, is an above average state for getting a job. But like all states, there are some cities and towns that don’t have as many opportunities as those around them,” according to the website.
Zippia’s post, “These are the 10 Worst Places in Washington to get a job” is four months old, but it is is just now getting around to promoting it, according to company representative John McLean.
Ratings skewed
Quinn said the ratings were skewed.
For instance, he said, it was not fair to criticize the area for low sales tax revenue since the big-box stores that generate the majority of regional sales taxes do not exist in Jefferson County.
“That we have low sales tax revenue is not indicative of what is going on here,” Quinn said.
Job balance
Bill Greenwood, executive director of the Economic Development Corporation of Clallam County, called the story’s premise “a strangely written statement,” adding that Port Angeles is not a hard place to find a job “if somebody wants to work.”
“We don’t have a good job balance in Port Angeles,” Greenwood said.
“We have lots of people who are looking for jobs and lots of employers who can’t fill their open positions but we can’t get them to match up.”
Greenwood said that the available jobs may not be to the jobseeker’s liking, as many of them are in the physically challenging marine trades.
Greenwood said that Port Angeles’ setting will continue to draw people, partially for an escape from heavy traffic and access to the outdoors.
The announcement that SeaPort Airlines will begin service to Seattle gives Port Angeles a new recruiting advantage, as this service connects the region to locations around the globe, he said.
“Once the service starts and installs security gates you will be able to go through security in Port Angeles and go to anywhere else in the world,” he said.
Survey limits
According to the Zippia website, the survey was limited to places with more than 5,000 people which resulted in the ranking of 188 towns in the state.
The ratings were based on each location’s unemployment rate, recent job growth, sales taxes and median household income, the website says, saying the data is from the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and research firm Sperling’s Best Places.
The website said that 9,106-population Port Townsend has an unemployment rate of 7.3 percent.
“The town did decidedly below average across the board, but didn’t necessarily rank as the worst in any one category,” the website said.
“Port Townsend ultimately finished in the bottom 10 percent of cities for both recent job growth and future job growth.”
It cited a 7.6 percent unemployment rate for both Sequim, population 6,527, and Port Angeles, with 19,061 residents.
“While the city named itself “Sunny Sequim” because of its distinct lack of rainfall, that name doesn’t transfer to the job front where it ranks as having a relatively distinct lack of jobs,” the website said.
“Port Angeles actually exactly mirrors Sequim with the only exception being median household income, where Port Angeles wins out over its neighbor by several thousand dollars” — $39,093 in Sequim versus $41,157 in Port Angeles.
Job decisions
In an email, company president Chris Kolmar said Zippia “is a new company that aims to help job seekers understand how their job decisions impact their careers.”
“We are working on developing articles that will help people understand their career options and how certain decisions will impact their career,” he wrote.
“One such decision is picking a place to live.”
Like many websites, Zippia posts specific “best and worst” lists but has not published any “best” lists for Washington state.
Other Washington cities rated in the worst-for-jobs posting were Aberdeen, second; Hoquiam, third; Tacoma, fourth; Toppenish, seventh; Lakewood, eighth; Sunnyside, ninth, and Ocean Shores, 10th.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
