Time once again to take a look at the breakdown of what sectors are adding jobs locally and what sectors are losing jobs.
First up, year-over-year job growth, broken down into a few relevant sectors over the past four years.
The “Finance / Real Estate” sector had been growing by as much as five percent about a year ago, but as of August has slowed to just 0.1 percent year-over-year growth. Construction is still the fastest-growing sector, but growth has tapered off there in recent months as well.
Let’s take a look at just the “Real Estate and Rental and Leasing” sector of jobs.
After hitting 4.5 percent in June, real estate job growth had rapidly dropped to just 1 percent as of August.
Next, here’s a zoomed in view of the sector-by-sector breakdowns so you can see what’s going on lately:
With 8.9 percent year-over-year growth in August, the construction sector continues to turn in strong gains, even though it has backed down from 11 percent growth in June.
Almost every sector we look at is still gaining jobs in the Seattle area. The one exception is manufacturing, which has been shedding jobs for ten months in a row.
Overall year-over-year job growth for the Seattle area continues to hold steady around 3 percent.
- Seattle-Area Job Levels: Washington State Employment Security Department