Published February 2004

Jobless rate continues
to drop

SCBJ Staff

Snohomish County’s jobless rate fell in December for the third straight month, thanks in part to jobs added by retailers for the holiday shopping season.

The unemployment rate in the county fell to 7.3 percent, a slight drop from the 7.4 percent rate posted in November.

However slight, the December drop in unemployment continued a trend that began in October. The jobless rate here hit a 14-year high for the month in September — 8.5 percent — and has been dropping ever since.

December was also significant because it was the first time in many months that the number of jobs in the aerospace industry, Snohomish County’s largest employer, remained steady, as did manufacturing as a whole.

There were a total of 41,900 jobs in manufacturing in December, including 22,400 in aerospace.

Retailers added 300 jobs for the month, and financial companies added another 200, thanks to continued low loan rates.

The jobless rate for the state as a whole also fell a tenth of a percentage point to 6.8 percent in December. Nationally, unemployment was at 5.7 percent for the month.

“The unemployment rate continued down from its recent peak of 7.8 percent in June, but the labor market is not all that much stronger,” observed Sylvia Mundy, the state employment security commissioner.

Economists say the state and nation have begun a jobless recovery, meaning employers have boosted productivity without hiring new workers.

“Washington is not alone in this,” Mundy said. “The nation also saw slow job growth in December.”

In Snohomish County, where the labor force is estimated at about 349,200 people, about 25,600 were unemployed.

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