The dark clouds from the recession are fading into the rear view mirror in Washington state, but there’s still a way to go to get back to employments levels from before the economic bust that started more than four years ago. A new report out today from the Employment Security Department shows that Washington state added 10,200 jobs last month, leading labor economist Mark Berreth to say that the state is “gradually building momentum on the job front.”

The unemployment rate, however, remains unchanged from May at 8.3 percent. It is down from 9.3 percent when compared to last year. The biggest job growth sectors in the state included professional and business services (up 5,000); manufacturing (up 3,000); and leisure and hospitality (up 2,000).

Sectors losing jobs included health and education services (down 2,500); government (down 1,800); and financial (down 600).

The information sector, where a number of technology jobs get classified, was up by 500 jobs on a month-to-month basis. A number of tech firms in the region are struggling to find talented engineers and developers, a competitive market given the likes of Facebook, Google, Amazon.com and others that are aggressively hiring in the region.

At this point, more than half of the jobs lost during the recession have been regained. From February 2008 to February 2010, about 205,000 jobs were lost in the state. Since then, however, 110,400 jobs have been added.

Full report here:

Employment Report

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