OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington state’s unemployment rate fell for the third straight month, dropping to 8.9 percent in June.
State officials said Tuesday the jobless rate dropped three-tenths of a percentage point from May’s revised rate of 9.2 percent.
More than 308,000 people in Washington were unemployed and looking for work. And more than 254,000 people received unemployment benefits from the state in June.
The state added about 4,500 private-sector jobs last month, but registered a net loss of 3,500 jobs for the month because of 8,000 government jobs being eliminated. About half of those jobs were temporary federal census work.
Several industries added jobs in June, including education and health services, construction, and retail trade.
