9.2% unemployment in state — and expect worse
The unemployment rate took its third big jump in a row in March, reaching a seasonally adjusted 9.2 percent — a level last reached in May 1984, state data show.
The jobless rate, which stood at a relatively modest 6.5 percent as recently as December, has risen by half a percentage point or more each of the past three months, according to the state Employment Security Department.
To put that in perspective: During the last three U.S. recessions, only once (in November 2001) did the state jobless rate go up by that much in a single month.
“It’s clearly a pretty dramatic downturn,” said Greg Weeks, head of Employment Security’s labor-market information branch. He called the trend of accelerating job losses “very troubling.”
More than 344,000 Washingtonians reported being unemployed and looking for work last month — almost twice as many as a year earlier.
And nonfarm employers sliced an additional 20,000 jobs from their payrolls in March, bringing the total job losses to 104,600 since the peak last August.
The jobless rate also rose in the Seattle metro area, to a seasonally adjusted 8.1 percent, from a revised 7.6 percent in February.
Weakness was widespread throughout the state’s economy, with no significant job growth in any industry or sector.
More job losses to come
And state forecasters say worse is to come. In a report issued last week, the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council said it expects Washington to continue losing jobs through the rest of 2009, though at a slower rate. The official state forecast is for unemployment to peak at 10 percent during the first three months of 2010.
The state likely will recover along with the national economy, which has shown some signs of bottoming out, the forecast council said. But, it added, “employment is a lagging indicator, and it is normal for the economy to shed jobs even after a recovery is underway.”
