State adds 11,000 jobs in January

The unemployment rate statewide dropped from 9.3 to 9.1 percent last month. Professional and business sectors added the greatest proportion of the new jobs with 5,600. Education and health services followed with 4,600.

Additionally, the Robert Half Professional Employment Report shows that a net 10 percent of executives in the Pacific Northwest plan to add full-time, professional-level employees during the second quarter. Nationwide that figure is 5 percent.

Adjusted for seasonality, last month marks the strongest for job creation in over three years. Around 338,000 people remain unemployed and looking for work throughout the state.