Washington state added 3,300 jobs in March, a modest amount which didn’t put a dent in the unemployment rate which held steady at 8.3 percent. Nonetheless, the arrival of more jobs across a variety of sectors — from government to retail to manufacturing — marked 18 months of job growth in the state over the past 19 months, according to the Employment Security Department. [Correction: An inaccurate press release issued by the Employment Security Department led to an error in the number of stated consecutive months of job growth in the state. The post and headline on this story have been changed].
“March was relatively flat, with modest job growth,” said state senior economist Dave Wallace. “It was encouraging that about half of the industry sectors added jobs and only two lost jobs.”
The unemployment rate was just ahead of the national average, which stood at 8.2 percent.
A number of the technology companies in the state — from Amazon.com to F5 Networks to Tableau Software — continue to hire at a rapid pace. Meanwhile, new entants continue to flock to Seattle in search of tech talent.
In fact, Facebook, which established a new branch office in Seattle last year, just opened a new office for its 90 employees in the city and now has room to add even more. Google, meanwhile, employs about 1,000 people in the area, split between offices in Fremont and Kirkland.
Interestingly, despite the growth of those companies, the “information” sector was flat for the month with no new jobs added, according to the report.
