County jobless rate up to 4.8%

Spokane County gained 1,000 jobs from October to November, but a larger labor pool translated to an increase in the region’s jobless rate.

Spokane’s jobless rate jumped to 4.8 percent in November from 4.5 percent the previous month. A year ago the unemployment rate in Spokane was 6.3 percent.

The county had 205,200 nonfarm jobs in November, however, compared with 204,200 the previous month.

The explanation?

“More people,” said Jeff Zahir, Eastern Washington labor economist for the Washington state Employment Security Department.

The Spokane metropolitan area’s labor force jumped to about 226,000 in November from about 223,000 the previous month, according to state figures.

Some of those people may have moved here and others could have started looking for work again after previously dropping out of the labor force, he said.

When adjusted for seasonal swings in employment, Spokane’s jobless rate fell to 5.1 percent from 5 percent in October.

Zahir said a standout in November was a 3 percent surge in retail trade employment.

“You have this huge jump in retail trade — that tells me people are more optimistic about sales in December,” he said.

Zahir reported that service-based occupations account for 86 percent of non-farm employment in Spokane County, which is unchanged from 2003. But the service sector has added 3,500 new jobs so far this year, compared with 1,500 new jobs in the same period last year.

He cautioned that Spokane’s jobless figures, while encouraging, could mask less desirable situations such as people working two jobs to make ends meet, workers who jump from seasonal employment to seasonal employment, or workers who are underemployed – those who aren’t making as much money or working as many hours as they’d ideally like.

Statewide, Washington’s overall unemployment rate rose a tenth of a percentage point, to 5.7 percent, last month.

The state’s latest seasonally adjusted jobless rate is a bit higher than the national average of 5.4 percent, which dropped a tenth of a percentage point from the previous month.

However, the state rate was much better than a year ago, when it hit 7.4 percent.