Washington State Adds Thousands of Jobs

Organizations throughout Washington state added 6,000 jobs in June, leading an economist for the state Employment Security Department to say that the job market continues to expand at a healthy rate.

The economist, Paul Turek, added that The rise in payroll jobs over the past few months has generated more opportunities for new entrants to the labor force.”

The Education and health services profession added the most jobs, 2,500, while the IT profession added 1,600 jobs and manufacturers created 1,300 new jobs. Construction firms lost 800 jobs, wholesale trade companies shed 600 and the leisure and hospitality sectors lost 300. Financial services firms also cut 100 jobs.

Despite dwindling June numbers, however, the leisure and hospitality sector has added more than 12,000 jobs the past year. Education and health services has added almost 21,000 and professional and business services firms have created 16,200 new jobs.

The state’s unemployment rate remains at 4.6%. Nationally, the unemployment rate is 3.7%, a slight uptick from May but still lower than the 4 percent it was in June 2018.