Washington State Loses 18,000 Jobs in September

The state of the United States economy still has not improved, with unemployment numbers still high, with no end in sight. In the month of September, the state of Washington lost 18,000 jobs, most of them being state jobs. The loss of the 18,000 jobs marks the first time in a year that the state had a monthly decline in employment, where the last job loss occurred in August of 2010.

The job loss in the state wipes out a string of growth that the state was going through in terms of employment, but growth still stands at 27,000. The jobless rate in Washington State fell from 9.3 percent to 9.1 percent, which is an improvement for the state. Experts within the state offered a warning that the numbers are still early and could be changed after more data is compiled.

“It’s not unusual for the surveys to generate somewhat different results, but the gap between the two September surveys is much larger than we usually see,” said Greg Weeks, who leads labor market analysis at the Employment Security Department. “We probably lost some jobs last month, but not as many as the preliminary data suggest,” he said.

The majority of jobs lost in Washington state for the month of September totaled 11,000 while the leisure and hospitality industry lost 3,000 jobs in September. The construction industry also suffered through steep job reductions in the month of September totaling 1,800 jobs lost. The information sector lost 1,100 jobs; transportation, warehousing & utilities, lost 900 jobs; wholesale trade, lost 900 jobs; other services, lost 500 jobs; financial activities, lost 200 jobs and retail trade lost 200 jobs.

The aerospace industry added 1,000 jobs and the manufacturing industry within the state added 800 jobs. Professional and business services gained 100 jobs while education and health services gained 600 jobs. There are 300,000 people in the state without jobs and 60,000 people in Washington state who have run out of their unemployment benefits. Over 202,000 people in the state who are unemployed had received over $229 million in unemployment benefits.

The government of Washington state will be having a special session soon in order to find a way to cut another $2 billion in spending, which could result in more government job losses for the state.

“The year-over-year net job growth of 27,300 includes an estimated gain of 44,600 private-sector jobs and a loss of 17,300 government jobs,” Weeks said.

The surveys that released these numbers are conducted each month for every state in the country by the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. These surveys also contain preliminary data that is usually revised and released at a later date. The surveys are released with the preliminary data in order to get the information out to the government and the public.

Weeks is expecting data to be released again in the near future that will close the gaps in the amount of jobs lost.