State Jobless Rate to Hold Steady in April

OLYMPIA, WA-Washington State’s preliminary seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for March fell one-tenth of one percentage point to 6.1% from a revised 6.2% in February, the state Employment Security Department announced this week. The rate compares to 6.8% at the start of the year and 7.5% at the end of March 2003. The jobless rate has been on a downward trend since peaking at 7.8% in June 2003.Looking ahead, the Washington Employment Security Department’s chief economist Kirsta Glenn tells GlobeSt.com the first quarter drop was a little more dramatic than expected and the downward trend should stagnate this month. “Everything seems better but there’s been no real corner turned,” she says. “Our expectations are that we won’t see another huge drop, that the rate will stay about where it is.”Since last June when the state’s labor force started growing again, employment has increased by 97,700, while the number of unemployed workers declined by 45,700. Employment gains have been particularly strong since last fall.This past month, Washington’s nonagricultural wage and salary employment showed a net increase of 20,900 jobs. Almost all major sectors added jobs as the mild labor market recovery augmented normal seasonal hiring. While construction added 4,200 jobs, manufacturing barely eked out job gains, adding 500 over the month. The Information sector continued its sluggish recovery, adding 400 jobs over the month. As expected, financial activities added jobs (700) as mortgage interest rates continued at record lows, spurring continued demand for mortgage refinancing.Professional and business services were up 3,200 jobs over the month and education and health services were up 1,500 jobs. Retail trade and leisure and hospitality grew slightly more than seasonally expected, up 1,900 and 4,500 respectively. Government employment was up by a net 2,600 jobs, as increases in state and local education (+3,600) outweighed losses in other local government (-1,400), and as temporary February poll workers left their jobs.Over the year, jobs were up by 39,500, or 1.5%. For most of 2003, the total number of jobs barely exceeded levels in 2002. Starting in November, however, the number of jobs started to climb significantly over year ago levels. At that point, job gains in services began to outweigh the smaller job losses in manufacturing. As of March 2004, manufacturing is down just 10,800 jobs over the year. The service sector and construction have started to create jobs in earnest.Large over-the-year gainers include construction (9,000), retail trade (6,500), information (2,300), financial activities (5,500), employment services (6,100), education and health services (5,200), and government (7,100). The increases in government come almost totally in state education and local government.