August 20, 2009

In case you missed it: Unemployment rate falls

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For the last 48 hours, much of the local news outlets have covered the story of a single local resident who may soon be out of work. After a surprising (but still unofficial) third-place finish in Tuesday's primary, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels may be joining Hire Ground readers in the search for a new job come November. (Perhaps the waterfront tunnel project is hiring.)

Lost in the shuffle, though, was some great news about 4,000 other jobs across the state. That's the number of seasonally adjusted, nonfarm jobs that Washington gained during the month of July, the first time in seven straight months that the state showed positive growth. On the same day that King County residents were casting their primary ballots, the Employment Security Department (ESD) announced that the state's unemployment rate dipped slightly from 9.2 percent in June to 9.1 percent in July.

Most of the jobs gained, according to ESD, were in the education and health services sectors, which enjoyed a net gain of 4,400 jobs. Other standouts include professional and business services, with 2,100 new jobs, and government, with 1,300 jobs, mostly in education and tribal employment.

ESD Commissioner Karen Lee was quick to halt any celebrations over the good news. "The July numbers are further evidence that the recession is slowing, but it's too soon to say whether we've turned the corner," she said in an official release. "We expect to see ups and downs for some time to come."

This being 2009, of course, there was some bad news along with the good in the monthly ESD report. In July, the construction industry continued its slide, with the loss of 3,200 jobs. Other loss-leading sectors included financial services (1,900 fewer jobs), manufacturing (900) and information services (100). Compared to July 2008 figures, overall July 2009 employment in the state was down by 4.1 percent, representing 123,200 fewer jobs today.

Meanwhile, ESD also mentioned that, in addition to its weekly unemployment benefits, it has distributed nearly $200 million in state and federal stimulus funds to unemployed workers in the form of temporary benefit increases.

Despite the long road still ahead, this 4,000-job net gain has to give at least a modicum of cheer to the nearly 316,000 unemployed people across Washington. Perhaps it is an early sign that we may have put the recession's darkest hours behind us.

Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.

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2 Comments

Norsk33 on August 21, 2009 3:52 PM | Reply

entry level jobs........... which one household wage earner cannot live on! let alone feed children, pay rent, etc etc

MRoutt on August 28, 2009 6:01 PM | Reply

What entry level jobs? Norsk, I have seen a lot of not so entry level jobs being posted, and a lot of entry level jobs that require bachelor's degrees...

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