"Rural Centralia, Washington, and surrounding Lewis County have long struggled economically. From 1998 to 2014 the county added no jobs. The town’s largest employer, a coal mine, which employed 600 workers, closed in 2006. And operations at its other major employer, a coal-fired power plant have been reduced by half as the plant works toward a planned retirement in 2025.
"As these events unfolded, they seemed like an economic death sentence to many in Centralia. But fate intervened.....by 2019 something miraculous had happened: Centralia’s GDP grew at twice the rate of the nation’s. Jobs also grew at nearly twice the national rate. Wage growth exceeded the national average. Centralia’s and Lewis County’s populations grew faster than the national average as well...."
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