Was Whatcom’s economy booming in 2015?
Whatcom County experienced a big jump in production last year, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it was a banner year for the local economy.
Much of Whatcom’s year-over-year growth took place in the nondurable goods category – products that are consumed in a short period of time. Oil refining dominates the nondurable goods category here. In 2014, the two refineries at Cherry Point made around $1.4 billion in product.
The BEA won’t have information about 2015 growth in specific industries until its next update in 2017, but previous years have shown that what happens with oil refining has a major influence on the area’s nondurable goods category.
Having the oil industry dominate the region can influence the numbers in a way that makes it difficult to figure out what is going on in the overall local economy, said Hart Hodges, co-director of the Center for Economic and Business Research at Western Washington University.
“Oil prices can change or just the volume of oil refined can change and we can see some big changes to our GDP, when in some sense nothing has changed” in the overall economy, Hodges said.