A record 475,000 Washington residents, including 23,642 in Clark County, received unemployment benefits during 2009 totaling nearly $4 billion, a 64 percent increase from 2008 as the region’s economy slipped into deep recession.
Despite added staff, state-run job centers throughout Washington worked 65,000 hours of overtime last year to handle the work load, said officials with Washington’s Employment Security Department.
That’s the bad news.
There’s good news in this week’s report. The state’s unemployment insurance system is functioning better than in most other states, officials said.
“So far, more than two dozen states have drained their unemployment funds and are bankrupt (now relying on federal money),” said Sheryl Hutchinson, employment department spokesman in Olympia. “Before we’re through with this recession as many as 40 state insurance programs could be bankrupt. Washington appears to have the single healthiest benefits system in the U.S.”
That’s because by order of the Legislature, unemployment taxes are collected from employers on a prorated basis over four years, so dramatic ups and down of the economy are smoothed out. For example, last year the state paid out $3.97 million in benefits from its jobless benefits trust fund and collected $950 million in unemployment insurance taxes from employers.
This year because of the short-fall, employers will see an average 2.38 percent unemployment tax rate, up from 1.55 percent in 2009. Rates for Washington’s 170,000 businesses will range from 0.95 percent to 6 percent on the first $36,800 of earnings for each employee.
Because the state had historically low unemployment from 2005 through 2008, the 2009 tax rate was the lowest in 40 years. This year’s increase is the first since 2004. Unemployment taxes are paid into a trust fund, which as of Nov. 30 held $2.79 billion.
Demand to stay high
Demand for jobless benefits in Washington likely will remain high well into 2010, if not 2011, as employers are reluctant to hire back laid-off workers.
Scott Bailey, a regional labor analyst in Vancouver, said while initial filings for jobless benefits were lower in Clark County in December than in the same month in 2008, continuing claims show little change.
Drawing from raw data, Bailey said a total of 3,832 initial claims for jobless benefits were filed in the county last month. That total is down from 4,874 initial claims in December 2008.
“That’s still high compared with 2005 and 2006, when half that many initial claims were filed,” Bailey said. “But not as bad a last year. The problem is that continuing claims for regular benefits totaled 7,837 last month, higher than the 7,314 a year earlier.”
Those totals don’t include jobless workers who have exhausted regular benefits and moved into “emergency” and “extended” benefits categories funded by federal money. Clark County’s unemployment rate in November was 13.2 percent, well above the state average of 9.3 percent.
Clark County’s December employment data generally mirrored national trends with fewer first-time claims, but little new job creation.
“What we’re seeing is less bleeding, but no transfusion in the form of hiring,” Bailey said.
Meanwhile, the state’s unemployment benefits program is helping many families make a mortgage payment and put food on the table, officials pointed out.
In Clark County, the payout in jobless benefits to local residents last year totaled $194.8 million.
“This recession has shown how valuable it is to have a solvent unemployment insurance system that not only helps families pay their bills, but also sustains local businesses where they spend their benefits,” said Employment Security Commissioner Karen Lee in a prepared statement “Without the $4 billion we’ve paid out in benefits, the recession would have had a bigger toll on our state.”
Julia Anderson is The Columbian business editor. To reach her send e-mail to julia.anderson@columbian.com.
