County jobless rate near 15 percent in February
State employers cut 8,300 workers after January gain
Education and health services lost a total of 1,200 jobs in Clark County in February. The sector has been among the state's strongest.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
February job losses largely wiped out much of the gains made in January as Washington employers cut 8,300 workers, compared with a revised gain of 11,100 jobs the previous month.
Unemployment in the state hit an estimated 9.5 percent last month, compared with a seasonally-adjusted rate of 9.3 percent in January, according to data released Tuesday by the Washington Employment Security Department.
In Clark County, the jobless rate reached 14.8 percent, up from a revised 14.2 percent in January.
“Overall it’s a disappointing month, but not inconsistent with what we would typically report after a turning point in the business cycle,” said Dave Wallace, interim state economist. “Even though we had positive numbers (in January), we didn’t expect it to be (steady) going forward.”
Washington workers should expect a turbulent recovery, with many ups and downs in employment over the next several months, Wallace predicted earlier this month.
The construction industry was a perfect illustration of that turbulence. The sector reversed its gains in February, losing 3,200 jobs after adding 2,700 jobs in January.
Education and health care services were also jolted with a loss of 1,200 jobs in February. The sector has been among the state’s strongest with job losses occurring in only two months since the start of the recession in December 2007.
Retail trade, financial activities, and mining and logging were the only industries to improve in February, while wholesale trade remained flat.
Such grim monthly results can appear discouraging until they’re taken into a broader context of data from the previous three months, which indicates the job situation is stabilizing, Wallace said. In the first two months of 2010, the state registered a small net gain of 2,800 jobs.
“We’re still losing jobs but it’s getting very close to zero in terms of a three-month trend,” Wallace said.
Clark County’s job picture was somewhat different from the state’s, with minor job gains coming in professional and business services and state and local government, including K-12 education.
The county, which tied with Cowlitz County for the fifth highest unemployment rate in the state in February, gained 200 unadjusted jobs for the month, taking the total number of unemployed to 31,840. That’s compared with 30,840 jobless in January and 27,410 a year earlier.
Adjusted for changes in seasonal employment, the county lost 200 jobs in February, according to Southwest Washington regional economist Scott Bailey.
Jobless rates in the Southwest corner of the state have continued to hover around 14 percent to 15 percent, compared with rates of about 10 percent in the greater Seattle area. That’s because Southwest Washington’s economy has traditionally been linked more strongly to the Portland metro area, where unemployment also remains high, Wallace said.
Construction employment remained unchanged in Clark County, when it would normally gain about 200 seasonal jobs in February, Bailey said. .
Retail trade employment inched down by 100 jobs, due largely to the closure of Kmart in central Vancouver in February, according to Bailey’s report. The store employed 68 workers when it announced its closure last year.
Manufacturing, health care and social assistance and federal government employment also declined by 100 jobs in February.
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