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State inching out of recession, but too slowly for jobless

By Shirleen Holt
Seattle Times business reporter

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Related stories First-time jobless claims at three-year low

While it may be tough for job hunters to feel optimistic just yet, it's helpful to revisit 2003, a year in which the state's jobless rate averaged 7.5 percent and a typical job search lasted five months.

Those days, economists say with fingers crossed, are probably behind us.

So here's a look back at the winners and losers of 2003.

Losers

Seasonal workers collecting unemployment benefits: Beginning today, the maximum weekly unemployment-benefit check will be frozen at $496 for the next five to eight years.

Jobless workers who earned lower wages will begin to see their unemployment checks shrink. Their benefits will be based on an average wage over the previous year rather than the average over the two highest-earning quarters.

The changes are part of an overhaul to the state's unemployment system, one of the reasons Boeing decided to put its 7E7 assembly plant in Everett.

That reform also cut the length of unemployment benefits from 30 weeks to 26 weeks once Washington's jobless rate falls below 6.8 percent, the rate it hit in November.

Winners

Long-term unemployment beneficiaries: The federal government extended jobless benefits in January 2003, giving a reprieve to some 44,000 people in Washington whose checks would have stopped.

That decision gave unemployed people here an additional 26 weeks of aid, meaning they could collect unemployment for more than a year.

Those just now exhausting their regular unemployment benefits won't be so lucky.

With the national economy in recovery, Congress decided against extending benefits, shortening the maximum to 26 weeks.

Losers

Job retrainees: Tuition aid for certain laid-off workers was used up almost before the 2003-2004 program year began.

This was because Washington's share of the federal dislocated-worker money dropped by 42 percent over the previous year, from $68.5 million to $39.4 million.

That basically left just enough money to serve students already going through two-year programs.

In most parts of the state, jobless workers who wanted to go to school were told to reapply for financial aid in July 2004.

Winners

Minimum-wage earners: The hourly base rises today, this time to $7.16. Washingtonians are the highest-paid minimum-wage earners in the United States.

The minimum rose to $7.01 in January 2003, thanks to a state law that ties it to inflation.

The national minimum wage of $5.15 an hour hasn't risen since 1997.

Despite protests from Washington businesses and a push by Republican legislators in 2003 to cap the increase, the inflation index remains in place.

Losers

Above-minimum-wage earners: By May, recruiters and job hunters around Seattle were reporting what had yet to make it into government statistics: Salaries were dropping.

One headhunter for the technology industry said jobs that used to pay $85,000 were now offering $62,000 and no signing bonus. A salesman in the building industry said he was getting offers at half his old salary.

Although an overabundance of labor was partly to blame for the slide, most employers fingered another culprit: rising health-insurance costs.

Losers

Employer-sponsored health-insurance plans: Premiums rose in the double digits for the fourth year in a row, forcing employers to pass the cost on to workers, cut benefits, eliminate pay raises or a combination of all three.

Although the average increase was 14 percent, small businesses and nonprofits around Seattle reported increases as high as 40 to 50 percent in a single year.

Shirleen Holt: 206-464-8316 or sholt@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company