The Spokane Region offers a well-educated, diverse and reliable workforce.  Spokane’s historic role as a regional center of services for the surrounding rural population has helped to create a geographic concentration of services with a highly-skilled labor force that makes it competitive with other urban centers.  This concentration helps to support the creation and expansion of other complementary businesses and jobs.
 
Ranked as one of the most productive regions nationwide, more than 90% of the region’s working age residents are high school graduates.  Over one-third of Spokane County’s population is in the prime working age range of 18 to 65, with a labor pool approaching 228,000.
 
As the education hub of the Inland Northwest with 18 universities and colleges located in the area, Spokane also boasts the second largest community college district in Washington State.  Over 65,000 students study within a 75-mile radius of Spokane, building the talent pool for the region.
 
More than 60% of our residents have attended college and almost 30% hold a bachelor’s degree.  Over 10% hold post-baccalaureate degrees.
 
Since 2005, our region’s population and employment growth has grown at double the pace of the national average.  We’ve added over 21,000 jobs since 2002, with a corresponding increase in real wages of 3.5%.

For more information on how Greater Spokane Incorporated supports local employment and our workforce, visit our Workforce Development page.