OLYMPIA, Wash. - Washington state saw an increase in jobs in January, marking the first monthly gain in employment since November 2008.
While an estimated 12,400 jobs were added, the unemployment rate increased slightly to an estimated 9.3 percent from December's revised rate of 9.2 percent, state officials said Tuesday.
"It's encouraging to see jobs finally coming back," Employment Security Commissioner Karen Lee said in an e-mailed statement. "I hope it signals the beginning of a job-full recovery, not a job-less recovery."
December's unemployment rate was originally reported as 9.5 percent, but it was later revised down to 9.2 percent. The highest rate in the state since the mid-1970s was in November 1982, when unemployment hit 12.2 percent.
"This is great news for Washington state, and yet another sign that our economy is on the rebound," Gov. Chris Gregoire said in a prepared statement.
Officials stress that because the unemployment rate tends to lag payroll employment, there could be ticks up in the rate in the coming months.
The state's jobless rate has hovered around 9 percent since summer, and Arun Raha, the state's chief economist, has said he expects it to peak at about 9.8 percent in the spring. The national unemployment rate for January was 9.7 percent.
"I remain cautiously optimistic as there is still an amount of economic turbulence, and any recovery is certain to be uneven," said Dave Wallace, chief economist with the Employment Security Department.
The industries that saw the greatest job gains included retail trade, which added 3,000 jobs, educational and health services, up 2,800, and construction, which gained 2,700 jobs.
Leisure and hospitality gained 1,600 jobs, and professional and business services added 1,000, as did manufacturing. Other gains included information, up 900, wholesale trade, up 800, and aerospace and parts manufacturing, up 600.
Wallace said that it's not unusual for the unemployment rate to increase along with the number of jobs gained.
Because the unemployment rate is based on the number of unemployed people who are actively looking for work, the rate doesn't include so-called "discouraged workers" who have given up on job searches.
"As job prospects get better, the labor market improves, and those folks who have been sitting on the fence are more likely to enter the labor force," he said.
Because the job market then increases, so does the ratio, Wallace said.
Some industries still felt losses in January: 900 jobs were lost in transportation, warehousing and utilities, and the number of jobs in other services fell by 800.
Washington has lost nearly 108,000 jobs since January 2007, a 3.7 percent decline. Nationally, employment declined by 3.1 percent during the same time. Year-over-year, all sectors except education and health services lost jobs.
Construction has taken the biggest hit, losing 32,700 jobs between January 2009 and January 2010.
About 360,000 people were still looking for work in Washington in January, and more than 305,000 people received unemployment benefits.
The highest unemployment rate in the state in January was 16.2 percent in Ferry County in the northeast. Whitman County in the east had the lowest mark at 6.2 percent. The largest county, King, was at 8.8 percent.
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