OLYMPIA, Wash. – Washington state saw a surge of new jobs in January, but job growth was sluggish in February. New numbers out Wednesday from the State Employment Department show a gain of 4,000 jobs, mostly in education, healthcare and manufacturing.
Labor economist Anneliese Vance-Sherman says last month’s job trends brought few surprises.
“Pushing January out of the picture and just focusing in on what we’re seeing with the month change here as well as the year over year change, this month was really looking like what we would expect the data to look like.”
Washington’s unemployment remains steady at 7.5 percent. In Oregon, numbers released Tuesday show similar stability with an 8.4 percent jobless rate.
On the Web:
Monthly Employment Report - Washington Employment Security Department