Published November 2002

County jobless rate up; slower recovery expected

By Mike Benbow
Herald Business Editor

Snohomish County’s jobless rate rose significantly in September as the Boeing Co. and other manufacturers combined to pare some 1,200 workers from local payrolls.

The unemployment rate for the county was 7.7 percent, an increase of 0.4 percentage points over the August figure of 7.3 percent, the state Department of Employment Security reported.

Statewide, unemployment also climbed, but at a slower rate.

Adjusted for inflation, Washington’s jobless rate was 7.4 percent, an increase of two-tenths of a percentage point. Nationally, the jobless rate fell, to 5.6 percent in September.

“The September numbers point to a continuing soft labor market in Washington,” said Sylvia Mundy, state employment commissioner. “The stabilizing national economic picture, including the falling national jobless rate, will have a cushioning effect on the Washington economy. We should nevertheless be prepared for a slower recovery in the state than at the national level.”

And things should be even slower to recover in Snohomish County because of the continuing Boeing cutbacks, according to Donna Thompson, the Snohomish County labor economist for Employment Security.

Jobs at Boeing and other aerospace firms in the county dropped by 700 in September, Thompson noted. During the past 12 months, that sector of the economy has shed 5,100 jobs, shrinking by 16 percent over the year.

Manufacturing as a whole in the county lost some 1,200 jobs in September alone — a total of 6,100 during the past 12 months, according to Employment Security statistics.

Retailers also trimmed their payrolls, cutting some 200 jobs in September. Thompson said the cutbacks followed reductions in consumer spending “amid a variety of local and national concerns.”

Despite the major cutbacks in some sectors of the economy, Snohomish County lost only a total of 100 jobs in September because of gains in other sectors. Because of the start of the school year, some 1,100 local school jobs were added. There also was an in-crease of 300 state government jobs, offset by a similar number of cutbacks at the local government level.

Of an estimated work force of 337,300 people in Snohomish County, 311,500 were working and some 25,900 were looking for work.

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