WA Unemployment Down In October, But Concerns Over Future Remain
OLYMPIA, WA — Washington's unemployment rate dropped from 8.3 percent in September to 6.0 percent in October. It's the continuation of a slow, but steady improvement since unemployment peaked at 16.3 percent for April.
But recent changes raise the question: can unemployment stay down through November?
As of this week, Washington has re-entered partial lockdown, shuttering businesses in an attempt to curb an explosive third surge of new coronavirus infections. Gov. Jay Inslee announced a suite of new coronavirus regulations Sunday, closing fitness facilities, gyms, movie theaters and more, while also limiting capacity at retail stores and restaurants.
State economists say those closures will likely cost some people their jobs, and could destabilize an already-shaky recovery.
“The preliminary read on October payroll employment shows a very small increase once more,” said Paul Turek, economist for the Employment Security Department. “Upward revisions to the data in recent months show a stronger recovery, but renewed restrictions on business operations in response to mounting virus risk put the recovery in jeopardy.”
Even before the restriction, some troubling signs were brewing, including a 71.7 percent increase in new unemployment claims for the first week of November — the largest jump in claims since late March.
If the new restrictions do cause a spike in unemployment, the ESD says they are prepared to help out. Department Commissioner Suzi LeVine issued a statement shortly after Inslee announced the new regulations Sunday, reading in part:
"With Governor Inslee’s announcement this morning, the Employment Security Department stands ready to assist any affected Washington workers while we all strive to curb the spread of COVID-19 in our communities.. ..While there will always be new challenges to address, we have learned much throughout this crisis that will help in the weeks and months ahead. We have updated our information, increased our staff, clarified claimant questions and upgraded our technology to handle this demand.”"
While Washington waits to see how November will shake out, there are some optimistic takeaways from the Employment Security Department's monthly report. At 6.0 percent unemployment, Washington is ahead of much of the country, which has a national unemployment rate of 6.9 percent. For comparison: in October of last year, the national unemployment rate was 3.6 percent, and Washington's was 4.0 percent.
Nearly 100,000 fewer people received unemployment benefits in Washington last month. The ESD says they paid unemployment insurance benefits to 453,798 people in October, down 99,489 from September.
Jobs themselves were somewhat of a mixed bag: the private sector added 14,100 jobs last month but was nearly cancelled out by the government, which cut 13,100 jobs statewide. The largest gains were made in professional and business services, and in retail trade.
This article originally appeared on the Seattle Patch
