EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Recompete Project is a U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) initiative designed to close the Prime Age Employment Gap (PAEG) in economically distressed regions. PAEG refers to the difference from the national average in the percentage of individuals aged 25-54 who are employed. Grays Harbor County has the highest PAEG in Washington State, reflecting challenges in workforce participation among prime-age individuals.
In Grays Harbor County, only 63% of people aged 25 to 54 are employed, which is 15% below the national average. Pacific County is more than 5% below the national average.
The program was initially supported by $200 million in appropriations from the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. Its primary goal is to increase the number of people who are employed by investing in strategies to create sustainable local economic opportunities. To understand and address the reasons people are not working, Greater Grays Harbor, Inc. (GGHI) worked with partners – including Grays Harbor College and Pacific Mountain Workforce Development – to form the Washington State Coastal Counties Initiative for Grays Harbor and Pacific counties.
In December 2023, the Washington State Coastal Counties Initiative was one of only 24 nationwide recipients of a $500,000 Recompete Strategy Development Grant. The initiative was designed to develop a strategic plan that identifies potential actions that could lead to greater employment opportunities through targeted federal funding.
In July 2025, GGHI contracted with Grays Harbor County Public Health (GHCPH) to collect data and provide analysis for three distinct and related components of the project:
- Draft and distribute a survey to the PAEG population in both Grays Harbor and Pacific County.
- Perform Key Informant Interviews of large employers and decision makers in both counties.
- Conduct a series of Focus Groups with other stakeholders, interest groups, and people from the PAEG target group.
The data collection period ended on October 31, 2025.
The PAEG survey resulted in 378 responses, with 78% of the responses being submitted by the PAEG target population in Grays Harbor County and 21% of the responses from the same population in Pacific County. The majority, or 76% of the respondents, identified themselves as female. The majority of the respondents identified themselves as White, and that English was their primary language.
The results of the survey also found that the top five barriers to employment for the respondents were: 1) childcare; 2) lacking the experience needed for a given position; 3) pregnancy, nursing, or maternal leave policies; 4) the need for alternative work schedule; and 5) lack of training and education needed for a given position. The survey also asked respondents about the industries they were currently seeking employment in. The results found that the top 5 job industries are: 1) retail trade; 2) health care and social assistance; 3) public administration; 4) accommodation and food service; and 5) manufacturing.
Results from 31 Key Informant Interviews produced the following themes:
- 93% of employers responsive to this survey indicated that they have positions that do require a college-level education or another type of specialized training.
- 80% of those employers indicated they do have trouble recruiting for positions due to the bucolic nature of this region, competitive pay, and lack of candidates that meet minimum requirements.
- Availability of seasonal work varied, with some employers offering up to 100 seasonal positions and most not offering seasonal work at all.
- Local employers struggle to hire, train and retain employees due to their inability to offer competitive pay, repeated policy violations by new hires, incentivizing recruits to live in the area, recruiting trustworthy employees, and identifying candidates who meet minimum requirements for hiring.
Additionally, the Key Informant Interviews found that:
- 89% of respondents report that they would be willing to commit to participating in a project to increase employment in our region.
- Nearly 60% of respondents say that their expansion plans would still be sustainable if grant funding were only available for short period of time.
Overall, the data finds that there is a need for childcare options, especially for women seeking employment in the region. Additionally, employers should consider instituting policies that help women who care for children to increase flexibility in their work hours. More education and training opportunities should be made available for those seeking employment but do not have the current skill set to work in one of top 5 industries noted above.
Finally, if the EDA were to open a notice of funding opportunity for the next phase of the Recompete Project, 77% of the Key Informant Interview respondents said they would provide a letter of support for the Phase 2 grant application and would work with GGHI to identify projects and programs that would ultimately expand employment over the next 3-5 years in the region.