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OLYMPIA – Washington added an estimated 4,000 jobs in February, while the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 7.5 percent for the third month in a row.

“February was relatively uneventful,” said Anneliese Vance-Sherman, a labor economist for the Employment Security Department. “The job growth was close to the monthly average for the past year, with no big surprises.”

The state has added about 65,000 jobs in the past year, averaging about 5,000 per month. So far, the state has regained about 70 percent of the 205,000 jobs that were lost due to the recession.

Industries with the most estimated job gains in February were education and health services, up 3,000; manufacturing, up 2,900; professional and business services, up 1,200; wholesale trade, up 600; information, up 400 jobs; other services, up 400 jobs; and government, up 400 jobs

Industries showing the most job losses last month included construction, down 3,600 jobs; leisure and hospitality, down 1,100; and transportation, warehousing and utilities, down 400.

In February, an estimated 259,100 people (seasonally adjusted) in Washington were unemployed and looking for work. That includes 139,900 who claimed unemployment benefits last month

Also in February, 3,357 unemployed workers ran out of unemployment benefits, bringing the total to 132,165 since extended benefits were activated in July 2008.

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Full report at https://fortress.wa.gov/esd/employmentdata/reports-publications/economic-reports/monthly-employment-report

State and local trends - https://fortress.wa.gov/esd/employmentdata/reports-publications/regional-reports/numbers-and-trends

Employment Security – esd.wa.gov 

Broadcast version

Washington added an estimated four-thousand jobs in February, while the unemployment rate remained at 7-point-five percent for the third month in a row.

So far, the state has regained about seventy percent of the 205-thousand jobs that were lost during the recession. 

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