Washington state’s unemployment rate went unchanged during the month of July, due to modest job growth. The state’s 5.3 percent rate matches the national rate of unemployment.
The July Monthly Employment Report from the state Employment Security Department (ESD) estimates Washington gained 5,900 new non-farm jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis from June 2015 to July 2015 with a gain of 7,000 new private sector jobs and a loss of 1,100 jobs in the public sector.
“Washington’s economy continues on a positive track with 5,900 new non-farm jobs from June to July 2015,” said state labor economist Paul Turek, in a press release. “The number of people in the labor market decreased slightly since last month, but we still have roughly 52,000 more people in the labor market than we did in July 2014 – and the majority of industries continued to experience growth.”
According to ESD, eight sectors saw growth from June to July while four suffered losses.
The top three industries with the largest gains were financial activities (+2,600 jobs), retail trade (+1,700 jobs) and leisure and hospitality (+1,500 jobs).
Sectors suffering losses were wholesale trade (-1,800 jobs), government (-1,000 jobs) and education and health services (-300 jobs).
Year over year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the state gained 108,600 jobs from July 2014 to July 2015, on a not seasonally adjusted basis, with 101,200 new jobs in the private sector and 7,400 new jobs in the public sector.