Washington’s unemployment rate was unchanged in September at 4.3 percent, the lowest in seven years and decisively below the 5.5 percent level a year ago, Employment Security Commissioner Carver Gayton announced Tuesday.

“Labor markets are tightening in the central Puget Sound area and Vancouver as the economy moves through the second year of exceptionally strong growth,” Gayton said.

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate inched up slightly from 5.0 to 5.2 percent during the month. The comparable national average was 4.9 percent.

Spokane’s unemployment rate for September was 4 percent, identical to an adjusted 4 percent for the month of August. But that rate is a sharp improvement from September 1996’s 4.8 percent.

Spokane’s September labor force was 202,800, with 194,700 employed, and 8,100 looking for work. August’s work force was 204,900, with an identical 8,100 unemployed people seeking work.

In September 1996, though, 9,500 people were unemployed in a work force of 197,300.

The transition from August to September is usually a static one, according to Fred Walsh, regional labor analyst for Employment Security. Losses from the shutdown of good-weather type job activity are offset by increases in education employment as schools resume, Walsh said.

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