State leads U.S. in job losses

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Reacting to the September terrorist attacks, unemployment rates rose in 33 states last month, and Washington state’s jobless rate wound up as the nation’s highest.

Washington’s unemployment rate climbed to 6.6 percent in October, up from 6.1 percent in September. And that’s without the massive layoffs at Boeing Co., where people will begin losing their jobs Dec. 14.

The Labor Department said the jobless rate in Nevada had the biggest increase last month, rising 1.5 percent from 4.8 percent to 6.3 percent.

Unemployment in Hawaii, another state heavily dependent on tourism, rose 0.9 percent, from 4.4 percent to 5.3 percent.

Earlier this month, the government reported that the national unemployment rate jumped in October to 5.4 percent, up from 4.9 percent in September. The September jobless survey did not capture layoffs that followed the Sept. 11 attacks.

Economists said the statewide data showed that few sections of the country are being spared the impact of the economic slump.

"This report shows that the fallout from the terrorist attacks hit very hard on states dependent on the travel industry," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com. "But it also shows that the economic weakness is very broad-based geographically."

Zandi said this contrasted with the last recession in 1990-91, when the Northeast and California suffered disproportionately.

Many economists believe the terrorist attacks have pushed the country into another recession, ending a record 10-year-long period of uninterrupted growth.

The government reported the overall economy declined at an annual rate of 0.4 percent in the July-September quarter, with private economists predicting the economy will shrink at a faster 1.5 percent rate in the current quarter.

Zandi predicted the national unemployment rate would peak at around 6.5 percent sometime next summer, based on his view that the recession will turn out to be a relatively mild one. Unemployment dropped a year ago to a 30-year low of 3.9 percent.

Other areas with high unemployment rates were Oregon, 6.5 percent in October, and Nevada and the District of Columbia, both at 6.3 percent.

The state with the lowest unemployment rate in the country was North Dakota at 2 percent in October, up from 1.7 percent in September, followed by Delaware and Nebraska, both at 3 percent in October.