On a day loaded with great economic news for Snohomish County there was even a little more on the job front — unemployment is continuing to fall.
The jobless rate in Snohomish County dipped slightly from 7.6 percent in October to 7.5 percent last month, the state Department of Employment Security reported.
The state jobless rate also dropped, from 7 percent to 6.8 percent in November, officials said. It was the second monthly decline for both the state and local numbers.
The latest national rate, by comparison, is 5.9 percent.
"We’re all waiting for a clear signal of a turning point in the labor market," said Sylvia Mundy, state employment commissioner. "Washington has only seen two months of decline in its unemployment rate, and job growth remains slow.
"The state seems to be following the nation, which has a somewhat firmer recovery, bolstered by four months of modest job creation," Mundy said.
Snohomish County also added jobs last month for a net gain of 400 positions, according to Donna Thompson, employment security’s labor economist for the county.
She noted that about 800 jobs had been added in the services sector, while manufacturing lost 400 jobs, including 200 in aerospace due to continuing layoffs at the Boeing Co. and related firms.
Boeing’s announcement that it will build the 7E7 Dreamliner in Everett should help reverse that trend, adding 800 to 1,200 new direct jobs and an additional 2,000 "ripple effect" positions to the general economy, Thomson said.
"Some of these openings will be with companies that provide parts and services to Boeing and some will result because of the additional consumer spending by the new Dreamliner employees," she said.
Thompson noted that there were 30,000 aerospace jobs in the county in January 2001, a number that has dwindled to 22,400 today for a loss of 7,600 jobs.
"Even though the new Dreamliner jobs won’t make up for all the jobs that have been lost, it will give a psychological boost to the rest of the local economy," she said. "There has been a fear that if the 7E7 Dreamliner were assembled in another state, then other new planes would also be assembled there. This could lead to additional job losses at the Everett plant."
The new unemployment figures mean that of an estimated labor force of 346,400 people, 26,000 were receiving unemployment benefits in November.
In Island County, the jobless rate was 6.6 percent in November, a slight rise from the 6.5 percent rate in October. Of the 28,500 workers in the county, 1,900 were receiving unemployment.
MIke Benbow: 425-339-3459; benbow@heraldnet.com.
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