Unemployment rate at an all-time low in Washington State

​According to state Employment Security Department, the unemployment rate has been steadily decreasing for the past 5 months and reached a new low at 5.2% last December.
In a recent press release, Paul Turek, an economist for the department, said that Washington State’s economy is strong and job projections are overwhelmingly positive, at least in the short-term.
There are more and more companies hiring and the economy finished strong by adding 6,700 jobs in December compared to 4,000 jobs the month before.
Unemployment insurance benefits are paid to 70,238 people as of December. The preliminary job estimates have been released. The data comes from the federal bureau of labor statistics and its monthly employment report including seasonally adjusted figures.
 
Labor force in Washington is increasing
 
The labor force remains at the same level with 3.69 million people and only 800 less than in november.
The labor force includes all the people over 16, whether they are employed or not.
 
 4 sectors are contracting but 8 are expanding
 
Employment in private sectors has increased: 7,400 new jobs were created meanwhile government jobs decreased by 700 during the month of December.
 
Lesiure and Hospitality grew the most at the end of 2016: 3,400 new jobs were created in this sector alone in December.
 
On top of this, the information industry added 2,500 jobs, retail trade added 2,200 jobs, wholesale trade also grew and added 800 new jobs, while the financial industry added 300. Education, health services, transportation, warehousing and utilities, and manufacturing created 200 new jobs each.
 
Some other services lost jobs such as construction (-400), professional services and government too. Logging and mining remain at similar levels this year.
 
Yearly growth remains vigorous
 
Washington State has created around 82,300 new jobs from last December until now if you don’t take into account seasonal adjustment. The public sector is growing at a slower pace than the private sector: 2.5% (14,000 jobs) versus 2.6% (68,300 jobs).
There are 13 different industry sectors in Washington State and from December 2015 to December 2016, 11 of them created new jobs and along with them many opportunities. Traditional industry sectors such as manufacturing, mining, and logging unsurprisingly reported numerous job losses: respectively 5,900 and 100 jobs lost.
 
The 3 sectors that have seen the biggest employment growth compared to the years before are:
•      Education and health services with 20,800 new jobs;
•      Government and Local Administration with14,000 new jobs and
•      Hospitality-Leisure-Tourism with 11,300 new jobs

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