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Every Intalco job lost equates to 2-2.5 unstable jobs in the county when workers scale back their normal spending habits, explained Hart Hodges, director of the Center of Economics and Business Research at Western Washington University. That means the Intalco losses threaten more than 1,750 jobs in the area.

“The ripple effects have certainly started because the layoff notices have been given, people know what change is coming and they have changed their spending,” Hodges said.

Even without Covid-19, Hodges said he doesn’t believe all 700 workers could find new jobs right away in Whatcom County, which had a population of slightly more than 229,000 people in 2019, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

“Some of the workers at Intalco will be picked up by companies in the area but not all 700. Some can find work but out of the area and some are going to have to think about career changes,”
he said.