Job Recovery led by Aerospace in Snohomish County

Anneliese Vance-Sherman, the Washington Employment Security Department’s county economist, prepared a report that detailed the job outlook and information for Snohomish County. The report detailed a .3 percent unemployment rate since the month of September, with the employment numbers for the county experiencing an upward trend over the past 12 months.

During that time span, the manufacturing industry saw the greatest growth, most notably in aerospace products and parts production. The primary place for growth was the Boeing Co.’s Everett assembly plant, according to the Snohomish County Business Journal.

The report said that numbers for unemployment are difficult to track and assess, with the decline sometimes reflecting those who discontinue their search for employment, those who move out of the county, or those who enroll in school.

“While the size of the workforce fluctuates seasonally, it has been declining and stagnating in recent months,” Vance-Sherman wrote in her study. “The labor force (numbers) represent an estimate of the number of adults who are either formally employed or actively seeking employment and living within the county,” she wrote. “There is considerable room for error, the best way to read unemployment data is in terms of trends over time and for comparing places rather than reading individual estimates out of context.”

Unemployment claims filed in October from the top five groups were construction and extraction-related jobs, production jobs, office and administrative services, transportation and material-moving jobs and management occupations.

Over the past 12 months, the report from Vance-Sherman noted that growth in the manufacturing industry of the county was led by the aerospace parts and product sector. Vance-Sherman wrote, “to a great extent … (creating) 6,700 new jobs. … Aerospace manufacturing currently employs 42,200 people in the county.”

Workforce estimates for Snohomish County tend to be larger than employment numbers because a big chunk of residents of the county commute to work in King County. According to the Boeing website, the company supported over 81,300 jobs in Washington state as of October 27, 2011, most of them at the Everett and Renton assembly plants.

Layoffs for 67 employees at BlueScope Buildings North America’s steel building plant in Arlington were submitted to the Employment Security Department. Those layoffs took effect on December 12, 2011. Also, 76 employees at Darrington’s Hampton Lumber Mills were scheduled to be laid off on December 12, 2011.

There were 100 jobs lost in the publishing and telecommunications businesses, while 100 jobs were added in the financial activities industries. These industries include banking, credit companies, insurance and real estate firms.

In the professional and business services sector, employment pretty much held steady, as did employment in the health and social services industries. There were 28,100 workers in the health and social services industries. There were close to 500 jobs lost in the leisure and hospitality industries.