Washington state has recorded job growth in every month for the past year, but the state’s lofty unemployment rate still showed no signs of shrinking, officials said today.
A report from the Employment Security Department found that the state gained an estimated 3,800 jobs in August, raising the one-year total to more than 46,000. The annual growth helped drive down the unemployment rate through much of 2010, but the rate has come back up in recent months and now sits at 9.3 percent.
The unemployment was at 9.4 percent a year ago and hit a peak of 10 percent at the beginning of 2010.
“How many ways can you say slow, steady progress?” said Dave Wallace, the acting chief economist at the Employment Security Department. “At some point, there will be a tipping point where the constant job growth starts eroding the unemployment rate.”
Wallace has theorized that some workers may be picking up multiple jobs, which would add to one employment figure but fail to improve the overall unemployment rate.
State economic forecasters have lowered their growth projections for the rest of this year. Lawmakers are closely watching economic indicators, especially a new revenue forecast due to be released Thursday.
