Jobless Rate Rises Slightly

Washington state’s unemployment rate inched up one-tenth of a percentage point in July, to 4.7 percent, state employment officials said Tuesday.

State Employment Security Commissioner Carver Gayton said growth in seasonal employment was offset by large layoffs of noncertified school personnel, leaving the July rate 0.1 percent above where it was a year ago.

“The jobless count typically remains very flat in July,” Gayton said in a statement.

Seasonally adjusted, the rate moved up 0.1 percent to 4.8 percent, compared with a national average that was unchanged last month at 4.0 percent.

The same trend held in Spokane County. Unemployment was 4.7 percent in June and inched up to 4.8 in July.

Spokane County’s nonfarm jobs were 193,500 in July - an increase of about 4,900 from one year earlier, according to the state data.

The biggest Spokane increases over the past year were in business services and in retail trade, said Fred Walsh, regional labor economist.

Retailing accounted for 1,500 new jobs compared with July 1999. Business services produced 1,200 new jobs, Walsh said.

Business services is a broad category covering call-center workers, computer tech service workers, architects and janitors.

This sidebar appeared with the story: Jobless rates

These are July unemployment percentages for some counties:

Spokane 4.8

Adams 6.2

Asotin 3.9

Benton 5.8

Clark 4.5

Columbia 8.9

Douglas 5.7

Ferry 10.4

Franklin 7.5

Garfield 3.3

Grant 7.5

King 3.4

Lincoln 3.8

Okanogan 8.4

Pend Oreille 8.0

Pierce 5.1

Snohomish 3.8

Stevens 8.3

Walla Walla 4.7

Whitman 2.2

State high Ferry (10.4)

State low San Juan (1.9)