February Unemployment

National picture

According to new government statistics, 651,000 jobs were lost in the country in February, bringing the national unemployment rate to 8.1 percent. That is the highest jobless level since 1983.

Since the economic slide began in December 2007, the nation has lost 4.4 million jobs. More than half those jobs disappeared in the last four months.

Some economists are particularly concerned about the fact that people are remaining unemployed for longer periods. In February, 2.9 million people were unemployed for more than six months, versus 1.3 million when the recession began.

Washington

New: Washington’s unemployment rate jumped 8.4 percent in February, up from 7.8 percent in January. An estimated 330,572 people in our state are now out of work.

In February our state lost 28,200 non-agricultural jobs. Professional and business service sector is down 13,400 jobs, the construction industry is down 4,200 jobs and manufacturing has cut 2,500 jobs.  

According to ESD, our current jobless rate is the highest since February 1987. In November 1982, the state’s unemployment rate reached 12.2 percent then began dropping.

The unemployment system- as it is today- didn’t exist during the Great Depression, so we don’t know exactly how high the jobless rate was back then.

During the 2001-02 recession, the state was hit particularly hard by the dot-com bust. The peak state unemployment rate for that recession was 7.7% in April 2002.

In December, more than 90,000 people filed unemployment claims. That was a 75 percent increase over December 2007. The Unemployment Insurance Division of the state Employment Security Department has had to increase staffing levels from 82 intake agents in January to 160 in order to respond to questions and process the high volume of claims.

At the end of 2008, more than 136,000 Washingtonians were receiving unemployment benefits, compared to 72,910 at the end of 2007.

The average unemployment rate for 2008 was 5.5 percent, but the state’s jobless rate jumped to 7.1 percent in December.

Eligibility

The public can call 1-877-558-8509 for information about eligibility.

http://www.esd.wa.gov/uibenefits/fileweekly/extension/extended-benefits.php