Employers still adding jobs, but at a slower rate

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Washington officials delivered mixed job news Tuesday, showing in their monthly statistics that Seattle is experiencing a job-growth slowdown and that statewide unemployment has increased.

At the same time, however, Washington employers added 4,100 jobs during September, and Seattle has had strong growth in several sectors.

"The direction (of unemployment) isn't the best, but it was due to an increase in the labor force, so we're still doing better year over year," said Evelina Tainer, chief economist for the state's Employment Security Department. "On the whole, I think it was a good period."

In Seattle, unemployment last month stood at 4.3 percent, up from August's 4.2 percent and down from last September's 4.8 percent.

Seattle is experiencing a slowdown in the construction sector, adding only 300 jobs in September compared with losing 400 in August and remaining flat in July, regional economist Cristina Gonzalez said.

Professional and business services -- which encompasses legal, architectural and temporary services -- is also slowing, with jobs neither added nor lost over the past few months, she said.

Software publishing and telecommunications gained 1,200 jobs in September, and manufacturing was up 700 jobs, most of them in aerospace.

"In general, we're slowing down," Gonzalez said. "Where we were having year-over-year job growth of 4 percent in Seattle, now we're seeing 3.5 percent."

For all of Washington, the unemployment rate rose 0.1 of a percentage point in September to 5.3 percent, as more people sought work in an expanding job market. That's down from 5.6 percent in September 2005.

The national rate was 4.6 percent, down from 4.7 percent in August. The state's highest unemployment was in far southeast Columbia County (7.8 percent), and the lowest was in San Juan County (3.2 percent).

Of the 4,100 jobs added in September, education and health services led the way with 2,000 new jobs. Finance added 1,500 jobs, as did construction.

Sectors with the largest declines statewide included government (down 2,100 jobs), transportation, warehousing and utilities (down 500) and leisure and hospitality (down 300).

The statewide labor force -- defined as those people with jobs plus those seeking jobs -- rose in September by 0.3 of a percentage point, while employment -- the portion of the labor force with jobs -- grew by 0.1 of a percentage point from August.

In the health care sector, which has suffered shortages recently, most of the growth statewide occurred in nursing and residential care facilities, as well as walk-in medical clinics.

"We're all getting older, and health care is just getting more and more important," Tainer said. "We're not going to get 1,800 (new seasonally adjusted jobs) a month, but it's still a strong sector."

All these numbers -- both percentages and number of jobs -- are seasonally adjusted. That means they represent the deviation from the expected figures, not absolute numbers. For example, a sector that gained 300 actual positions is said to have gained 100 seasonally adjusted jobs if only 200 jobs were forecast to become available.

P-I reporter Dan Richman can be reached at 206-448-8032 or danrichman@seattlepi.com.

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