For the first time in more than a year, Snohomish County’s job engine fired on more than a couple cylinders in May, adding new workers in a variety of fields, including aerospace and the retail trade.
As a result, Snohomish County’s jobless rate dropped from a revised 9.5 percent in April to
9.2 percent in May, according to a report released Tuesday by the state Employment Security Department. Unemployment was at 10 percent in May 2010 and had hovered around that number until earlier this year. The state jobless rate is 9.1 percent.
About 34,250 people remained jobless in Snohomish County in May, compared to 35,310 in April. The workforce grew by 870 people. The numbers don’t include people who’ve stopped looking for work because they are discouraged or have moved from the area. Nor does it include part-time workers unable to find a full-time job.
As usual, aerospace led the way in May, adding 600 jobs. As Snohomish County has tried to struggle out of the recession, that’s where most of the new jobs have been each month. In the past year, the industry has added 4,500 workers as the Boeing Co. and its suppliers have prepared to deliver the first 787 and 747-8 and also began production increases for the 767 and 777 in Everett.
What changed in May was hiring in three of the four categories of construction — mining, logging and construction, which added 300 workers; heavy construction, which added 100; and specialty trade contractors, which also added 100 employees. Building construction didn’t hire any new workers last month.
At an economic forum in Everett on Tuesday that was held before the unemployment numbers were available, labor economist Anneliese Vance-Sherman said aerospace manufacturing was “the dominant driver” and that manufacturing and construction were “the key to our economy.”
Vance-Sherman, who works for the Employment Security Department and studies the local economy, said aerospace accounts for 15.5 percent of all the jobs in the county and around 67 percent of all the manufacturing jobs.
She noted that the three construction areas that added jobs in May are still in negative territory in terms of the number of jobs added since May 2010, which she said was “pretty much the lowest point” of the recession for Snohomish County.
“But the year-over-year numbers are narrowing and that leads me to believe that construction may have also turned a corner,” she said.
She noted that the recession took away nearly 40 percent of all construction work in the county. The housing industry is still dormant, and construction will have to add 700 more workers just to get back to the employment levels that existed a year ago, according to the employment security report.
But May’s growth was a good sign.
Also adding jobs in May were retail trade, information, administrative support, education and health services, nursing and residential care facilities; education and health services; local government; and taverns and restaurants, which added 600 people to get ready for summer.
Losing workers were professional and business services, state government and state educational services.
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