Jobs engine roaring in state, Seattle metro area

Washington added jobs at the fastest pace in nearly eight years last month, a performance powered by the red-hot construction sector.

Nonfarm employment in the state grew by 10,100 jobs in February, to 2.84 million. That's 3.5 percent growth over February 2005 and follows the 3.4 percent year-over-year growth notched in January.

Last month's unemployment rate, however, edged up to 4.8 percent from January's revised figure of 4.6.percent, as more people re-entered the labor force than immediately found jobs.

"The Washington state economy right now is a job engine drawing people in from the sidelines and into the job market," said Greg Weeks, director of the state Employment Security Department's economic-analysis branch.

The jobs picture looked even better in the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett metropolitan area, where nonfarm payroll employment in February rose 4.3 percent from February 2005. The local unemployment rate bumped up to 4.3 percent, compared with 4.2 percent in January.

While the jobless rate gets much of the attention, economists usually consider the payroll numbers a better gauge of how the economy is faring.

By that standard, Washington and Oregon, which lagged far behind the rest of the nation during the recession, are now outperforming. Oregon, which reported February jobs numbers Monday, showed a 3.5 percent increase in payroll jobs over the previous 12 months. By contrast, the nation as a whole had 1.5 percent more jobs in February than a year earlier.

Construction once again was the motor of both state and local economies. A quarter of the new jobs added statewide came in construction, which has been fed by the housing boom and a reviving commercial real-estate market.

In February, construction directly employed 84,400 people in metro Seattle and 190,100 people statewide — up 11.2 percent and 9.9 percent, respectively, from a year earlier. Unlike state figures, those numbers are not seasonally adjusted. It's unclear how long such growth can last, given signs of an impending housing slowdown.

"That kind of growth is definitely not sustainable," said Cristina Gonzalez, Employment Security's regional labor economist for the Seattle area. "I think we're definitely going to see a slower rate of growth, rather than an actual decline, but I can't say when," she said.

Gonzalez noted that, despite strong jobs gains in the past two months, the Seattle area hasn't quite recouped all the jobs it lost during the 2001-03 recession.

Area employment peaked in December 2000 at 1,430,600 payroll jobs, before adjusting for seasonal variations.

As of February, the metro area had payroll employment of 1,393,100, about 37,500 jobs shy of the peak.

Drew DeSilver: 206-464-3145 or ddesilver@seattletimes.com