A recently released report indicates more than a quarter of Whatcom County workers commute outside the area to their jobs in the second quarter of 2009.
According to the data, 74.1 percent of Whatcom County workers stayed within the county limits to work. King County was the most popular place to commute to from here, with 9.6 percent of workers going there, while 5.2 percent traveled to Skagit County and 4 percent went to Snohomish.
The commuter data was put together by Reinhold Groepler, a regional labor economist for the state.
While it’s a significant percentage of commuters, Whatcom County’s percentage is much lower compared to nearby counties. In Island County, only 35.3 percent of workers who live in the area work in the county. Skagit County keeps 53.3 percent of its workers, while Snohomish keeps 45.5 percent. King County had the highest percentage of workers that stay within the county, at 84.5 percent.
In terms of net inflow/outflow, Whatcom County loses 4,786 workers, while Skagit loses 6,656. Not surprisingly, King County is the worker magnet, but the total amount was surprising to me, drawing in 247,768 workers from other counties.
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