The economy continues its slow recovery in Washington state, with the State Employment Security Department announcing today that the unemployment rate came in at an estimated seven percent in April. That’s the lowest point since December 2008, and the unemployment rate has fallen by half a percentage point since the start of the year.
“The labor market is continuing to improve at a moderate but accelerating rate, somewhat faster than the nation,” said Scott Bailey, a labor economist for Employment Security.
So far, Washington has regained about 78 percent — 160,100 — of the 205,000 jobs it lost during the recession.
What’s more interesting about the chart above is the significant drop in the unemployment rate in Seattle, where the jobless rate now stands at 5.1 percent.
Certainly, the tech industry in Seattle is helping to drive that as companies like Amazon.com, Apptio, Tableau Software, Zillow and Zulily continue to hire engineers and developers at aggressive rates.
Previously on GeekWire: Survey: Washington state No. 1 in software publishing jobs, ranks third in tech wages
