Snohomish County jobless rate falls below 6%

EVERETT — Snohomish County’s unemployment rate in March took another steep decline, falling from 6.3 percent to 5.7 percent.

Unemployment rates have been falling since early 2010, following seasonal trends, said Anneliese Vance-Sherman, regional labor economist for the Employment Security Department. For comparison, the unemployment rate in March 2012 was 8.3 percent. March 2013 marks the first time the unemployment rate in Snohomish County has fallen below 6 percent since September 2008 and the start of the Great Recession. The county’s unemployment rate peaked at 11.4 percent in January 2010.

Nonfarm employment in Snohomish County expanded by 100 from February to March 2013, with a March tally of 262,200, Vance-Sherman noted in her analysis of the data. Employment in the private sector as a whole grew by 300 in March; the public sector shrank by 200. From March 2012 to March 2013, 5,000 jobs were added to the local economy. The private sector has been responsible for most new jobs year-over-year (5,100).