Workforce Needs Assessment Report

Every weekday in Jefferson County, roughly ten thousand people open up shop, clock in, head to a jobsite, or walk into a classroom. About four in ten of those jobs pay enough to cover the cost of living here without a second income or outside help.

The Jefferson County Workforce Needs Assessment, released this week by EDC Team Jefferson, looks at where the living-wage jobs are, where the training to reach them is and isn't, and what the county can do to put more working-age residents on a path to one. A living wage, for purposes of the report, is $26 per hour plus benefits, about $63,080 a year. 

The assessment builds on the East Jefferson County Workforce Development Report prepared by Kelley Watson and supported by the Jefferson Community Foundation. EDC Team Jefferson prepared this summary with Recompete funding, designed to be a working reference for employers, school districts, parents, job seekers, policymakers, and anyone else trying to make sense of the local labor market.

What the Data Shows

Jefferson County's median age is 59.6, and 54% of residents are over 60. As of September 2025, residents 65 and older (13,181) nearly match all residents between 16 and 59 combined (13,621). Labor force participation runs at 43.3% against a statewide rate of 64.7%, and while much of that gap is tied to retirement, among adults aged 25 to 54 it is still 74% compared to 83.3% statewide. Youth unemployment is 24%, and most local high school graduates don't enroll in any post-secondary program, even eight years after graduation.

Housing sits underneath all of it. The median home price reached $589,073 in February 2026, requiring a household income of $131,000 to $168,000 to qualify, close to double the county median. Since 2000, real wages have grown 7%. Home values have grown 82% and rent has grown 20%.

Five Pathways to Living-Wage Jobs

Five occupation clusters carry the highest concentration of living-wage employment in the county: business administration, finance, and insurance; information technology and professional services; healthcare and social assistance; education; and construction, manufacturing, and utilities. Each represents a significant share of local jobs, requires skilled training beyond on-the-job learning, and pays above the self-sufficiency threshold.

The pathways cover a wide range of specific work: accountants, financial managers, and compliance officers on the administration and finance side; civil engineers, software developers, and computer support specialists in IT and professional services; registered nurses, EMTs, dental hygienists, and physical therapists in healthcare; K-12 teachers, education administrators, and librarians in education; and carpenters, electricians, and construction managers in construction and manufacturing. Marine trades, central to the local economy, are distributed across that last cluster.

Two findings sharpen the picture. Healthcare is the largest projected growth area, with Jefferson Healthcare predicting 13% growth in healthcare and social assistance jobs in the region between 2021 and 2031, driven in part by the county's own aging demographics. And the priority pathways are durable: Brookings Institution analysis cited in the report finds that hands-on sectors, including healthcare, construction, and manufacturing, have the lowest exposure to generative AI displacement, strengthening the long-term case for workforce investment in these areas.

Training

Jefferson County has a varied training ecosystem: Peninsula College, the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding, the Port Townsend School of Massage, CTE programs in four school districts, and employer-led training at Jefferson Healthcare, Jefferson County PUD, and the Port Townsend Foundry, among others. What the county lacks is broad, in-county coverage across the five priority pathways. While Peninsula College offers a certified nursing assistant course in partnership with Jefferson Healthcare, there is no community college campus or physical WorkSource office in the county. The nearest Peninsula college campuses are an hour or more by car from Port Townsend, Quilcene and Brinnon. IT, professional services, and education are particularly thin on local options. And in an economy where 82% of businesses employ fewer than ten people, the time a small employer puts into training a new hire is its own significant cost.

Where the Report Points

The report frames the work ahead in four areas. On collaboration, that means bringing employers, K-12 CTE directors, and post-secondary providers into closer alignment around each of the five priority pathways, and expanding in-person, in-county access to programs at Peninsula College and Olympic College. On advocacy, it means pushing for an in-county WorkSource office, currently the nearest physical locations are in Sequim and Silverdale, along with rural registered apprenticeship models and stronger CTE coordination across the county's four school districts. On funding, it means directing grants and private investment toward training in the five priority pathways and the specific gaps the data identifies. And on program building, it means developing paid internships, on-the-job training, and upskill programs, particularly in healthcare and construction where forecasted growth is highest.