Washington’s jobs outlook closer to national average

Washington’s unemployment rate for April dropped to 5.5 percent, on a preliminary, seasonally adjusted basis, according to estimates by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. At the same time, the U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 5.4 percent. Unemployment in the Seattle/Bellevue/Everett area was 4.3 percent.

May 21, 2015 7:00 am

The following is a release from the Washington State Employment Security Department:

Washington’s unemployment rate for April dropped to 5.5 percent, on a preliminary, seasonally adjusted basis, according to estimates by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. At the same time, the U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 5.4 percent. Unemployment in the Seattle/Bellevue/Everett area was 4.3 percent.

The state unemployment rate was 5.9 percent in March 2015 and 6.2 percent in April 2014.

The April Monthly Employment Report from the state Employment Security Department (ESD) estimates Washington gained 110,700 jobs from April 2014 to April 2015, on a not seasonally adjusted basis, with 98,300 new jobs in the private sector and 12,400 new jobs in the public sector.

Washington’s resident labor force held steady with nearly 3.55 million people in the workforce, both employed and unemployed, over the age of 16. The number of unemployed, or those who currently do not have a job but have actively looked for work in the last four weeks, dropped from 221,900 in February 2015 to 196,600 in April 2015. ESD paid unemployment benefits to 68,063 of them.

“The number of people in the workforce held steady with a minimal decrease of 500 people in the labor force but we saw roughly 12,700 fewer unemployed from March to April of 2015,” said state labor economist Paul Turek. “This means a lower unemployment rate for Washington overall.”

From April 2014 to April 2015, 12 major industries saw growth and only one suffered losses. The top five industry sectors with the largest employment gains from April 2014 to April 2015 were:

· Construction with 19,500 new jobs;

· Professional and business services with 18,800 new jobs;

· Education and health services with 13,200 new jobs;

· Retail trade with 13,200 new jobs; and

· Government with 12,400 new jobs.

The mining and logging industry lost 200 jobs from April 2014 to April 2015.

According to today’s monthly employment report, on a nonfarm, seasonally adjusted basis, the state gained 8,200 new jobs from March 2015 to April 2015, entirely through private sector growth. The BLS revised March’s preliminary gain of roughly 10,500 jobs, adding 1,500 jobs to bring the revised total to 12,000 new jobs for March.