Washington unemployment holds at 5.2%; June adds 5,400 jobs, ESD says

Annalise Vance Sherman, chief labor economist at the Employment Security Department (ESD), said the statewide unemployment rate held at 5.2% for a third consecutive month and that seasonally adjusted total nonfarm employment rose by 5,400 jobs from May to June.

"Overall, not a whole lot of change," Sherman said, summarizing a pattern of small monthly increases and decreases that have left year-over-year employment roughly unchanged. She noted the Seattle metropolitan area’s unemployment rate fell from 5.4% to 5.2% and contrasted Washington’s 5.2% with a 4.2% national rate.

The month-to-month gain was concentrated in leisure and hospitality, with much of that increase appearing in food and drinking places, Sherman said. "The majority of the growth when we're looking at that June employment number showed up in food and drinking places," she told reporters. Statewide, education and health services added about 1,600 jobs (largely health services).

Sherman cautioned that seasonal adjustments affect interpretation: government employment fell by 2,400 jobs but did not drop as far as the typical seasonal expectation (an expected drop near 6,400), which can make the figures appear like a relative increase in some presentations of the data. She also said high-profile layoff announcements and WARN notices do not automatically translate into the same number of net job losses because some displaced workers find new employment within or across industries.

On year-over-year industry performance, Sherman listed several sectors with declines: government (-5,100), retail trade (-4,700), information (including software and other high-tech work, -3,200), wholesale (-2,300) and financial activities (-1,500). Leisure and hospitality led annual gains (about 6,100 jobs, or 1.7%).

Lisa Brooks of KNKX asked whether the World Cup was responsible for the leisure and hospitality gains. Sherman said the agency cannot assign direct cause from the labor data alone but noted May showed an early ramp-up in leisure and hospitality and that the June rise continued the pattern. She added that accommodations were relatively flat while restaurants and bars accounted for most of the June growth, and that informal lodging activity (for example, some Airbnb-related work) could be undercounted in the official data.

The agency said county-level employment figures will be released about six days after the state report; the calendar referenced a July 21 county release. Sherman said she looks for three consecutive months of similar movement before declaring a sustained trend. Reporters seeking follow-up were directed to the agency’s media inbox for further data requests.

The media availability closed after a brief question-and-answer session.