Published December 2001

Jobless rate jumps to 5.7% in county, 6.2% in state

By Mike Benbow
Herald Economy Editor

Economic fallout from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks vaulted Snohomish County’s jobless rate up nearly a full percentage point in October to 5.7 percent, its highest level in nearly six years.

Statewide, the rate surged seven-tenths of a percentage point to 6.2 percent, the worst October unemployment in eight years.

Donna Thompson, a regional labor economist for the state Department of Employment Security, said the numbers are the first ripples of the economic slump that has followed the attacks, a slump that will be felt for months.

“You had the major airlines cutting back and laying off huge numbers of people,” she said. “A week or two after that, Boeing announced it was cutting 30,000 people, and that sent a shock wave through the whole area.”

While the first Boeing layoffs don’t begin until Dec. 14, the effects of the aerospace giant’s announcement started immediately as other companies initiated their own layoffs.

Snohomish County, which had a 4.7 percent jobless rate in September, lost 1,100 jobs in October, with the major declines coming in temporary employment services and in retailing.

Thompson noted that the jobless rolls in the county climbed even faster — by 3,200 people in October — an indication of the large number of residents who work in King County and lost jobs there.

All told, there were 19,500 people out of work in Snohomish County in October from an estimated work force of 344,300.

While the unemployment rate is climbing, it’s a far cry from the 11.6 percent rate recorded statewide in the recession of 1982. And Thompson said she doesn’t expect the current economy to come anywhere near that figure.

“We’ve had worst times in the past,” she said. “We don’t believe this whole thing will be as bad as it has been in the past.”

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