Tagged: Unemployment

The latest community college enrollment numbers may hold a clue to what’s happening in the Northwest’s economy. Some two-year institutions in the region are seeing the first decline in class registration since the recession. Correspondent Jessica Robinson has more.

Washington’s jobs and employment numbers for July contradict each other in the latest figures released Tuesday. Washington gained 5,000 jobs last month. Yet the state’s unemployment rate crept up to 8.5 percent.

Washington has gained back more than half the jobs it lost during the Great Recession. The state reached that benchmark last month with the gain of 10,000 new jobs.

Even so, Washington’s unemployment rate remained unchanged in June at 8.3 percent. That’s because the universe of people actively looking for work is also growing.

The latest jobs report for Washington state contains a paradox. It shows strong job growth in the private sector. But at the same time, the state unemployment rate also rose.

Washington's Employment Department Wednesday reported a May jobless rate of 8.3 percent, up slightly from the revised 8.2 percent rate of April.

State labor economist Anneliese Vance-Sherman said in a conference call that the higher unemployment rate was caused primarily by once-discouraged workers resuming their job hunts.