The unemployment rate in the state of Washington remained at 4.5 percent last month, according to the state’s Employment Security Department.
Despite the unchanged rate, the state did add 2,500 new jobs between May and June, with the greatest job growth in government sector (+2,800 jobs).
“Washington’s economy continues to add jobs slowly, just not enough for the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate to fall lower in June,” said Paul Turek, economist for the department. “There’s just not a lot of excess skilled labor available in the market for employers to dramatically increase hiring.”
This month’s jobs report shows gains in wholesale trade (+2,000), other services (+1,900), construction (+1,400), financial services (+1,100) and information (+600).
Sectors with the largest reduction in jobs last month were retail (-2,700), health services (-2,600) and leisure and hospitality (-1,200).
Year-over-year growth
Year-over-year, the state added an estimated 81,000 new jobs (June 2016 through June 2017), not seasonally-adjusted. The private sector grew by 63,500 jobs, and the public sector increased by 17,500 jobs.
The three industry sectors with the largest employment gains year-over-year, not seasonally adjusted, were:
- Government (+14,800)
- Construction (+15,100)
- Retail trade (+11,000)
Manufacturing (-6,700) and logging (-100) were the only sectors to report job losses year-over-year.
