King County, Seattle, and Bellevue Real Estate Blog

The state Employment Security Department, in its monthly report, said that Washington State's unemployment rate dropped from 9.3% to 9.1% in the month of May. This marks the fourth month out of the last five months that Washington has added more jobs than lost.

Of the 8,600 jobs added last month, 8,100 were temporary census workers, so it was a net gain of only 500 discluding census workers. Still, it was a gain and I'm happy to see what is shaping up to be a trend that is in the flat to positive range as opposed to a negative trend.

In regards to the particular fields... construction added 800 jobs, retail added 600, and professional and business services added 800. On the opposite side, financial services cut 1,100 jobs, accommodation and food services cut 600, aerospace manufacturing cut 500, and transportation and warehousing cut 400.

Overall unemployment figures across the state are very mixed county to county. The Seattle Metro area dropped from 8.5% to 8.4%. Both Clark and Ferry counties had the highest jobless rates at 13%. San Juan and Whitman counties had the lowest rate at 6%.

Overall, I'm happy to see the trend working in the correct direction. Getting unemployment turned around will play heavily on the rate at which the real estate market recovers.