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State Unemployment Rate Eases Seasonal Job Gains Credited For Drop To 5.7 Percent In July

From Staff And Wire Reports

The usual summer buildup in construction, recreation and tourism helped push Washington’s jobless rate down in July from 5.9 percent to 5.7 percent, Employment Security Commissioner Vernon Stoner announced Tuesday.

That represents the lowest rate of the year and also is better than the July 1994 rate of 5.8 percent.

“Employment in Washington usually peaks in July and again in October as our seasonal industries hit their stride, Stoner said.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the state’s unemployment rate dropped from 6.3 percent to 6.2 percent - half a percentage point above the 5.7 percent national average.

In Spokane County, the July unemployment rate was 4.9 percent, down slightly from the adjusted June rate of 5.1 percent and up slightly from the July 1994 rate of 4.5 percent.

Fred Walsh, Employment Security’s regional labor economist, said the month-to-month change is typical of the summer season.

The slight increase over last year is a reflection of slight growth in both total employment and total number of unemployed.

In the local labor force, 187,500 were employed and 9,600 were seeking jobs.

The phenomenon, Walsh said, is typical of a growing population area.

Statewide, non-farm wage and salary employment dropped by 35,200 workers in July, said Dennis Fusco, chief economist for the Employment Security Department. Normal seasonal layoffs of non-teaching staff at public and private schools lowered the education category by 41,600.

“Most of the loss represented very normal seasonal downturns,” said Fusco. “However, the state experienced a one-time hit in aircraft and parts of 5,100 as Boeing workers exercised early retirement options, and another 700 workers were removed from payrolls at Hanford.”

On a more positive note, construction employment increased by 3,200 workers in July.

Compared with a year earlier, total non-farm wage and salary employment was up 56,500 workers in July. Manufacturing was off by 2,200 with a 10,800 loss in aircraft and parts countered by an 8,600-worker gain elsewhere in the principal goods-producing sector.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Map: County-by-county monthly unemployment rates