Let’s take another look at the Seattle area’s employment situation.
First up, year-over-year job growth, broken down into a few relevant sectors:
Construction continues to post bigger gains than other sectors—up 8.9% year-over-year in October, versus an overall gain of 3.6%. Manufacturing has slipped somewhat in recent months, but is still the second-best-performing sector.
Here’s a look at the overall Seattle area unemployment rate compared to the national rate:
Unemployment fell in Seattle and Washington State from September to October, while it inched up slightly nationally. The Seattle area is still outperforming Washington State and the nation as a whole, with October unemployment coming in at 7.9% for the US, 8.2% for Washington, and 7.3% for the Seattle area.
At this rate it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Seattle area get down to six percent unemployment by this time next year.
- Seattle Unemployment: Washington State Employment Security Department
- Washington & US Unemployment: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Seasonally adjusted series used for all data sets.
