If you're an optimist, you'll focus on the 2,100 nonfarm payroll jobs added last month — the eighth straight month of job growth. The overall number of payroll jobs was up a solid 3.4 percent from May 2005.

But if you're a pessimist, you'll note that those 2,100 new jobs were the fewest added since September 2005; that April's job gain was revised downward, to 3,900 from 5,200; and that together, those figures represent a marked slowdown from the torrid pace set in the first quarter, when the state added 33,300 jobs.

The unemployment rate rose to 5.1 percent in May, from April's rate of 4.7 percent.

Evelina Tainer, chief economist for the state Employment Security Department, cautioned about reading too much into that figure. Because the unemployment rate is derived from a much smaller survey than the payroll figures, Tainer said, it tends to bounce around more. And the rate was even higher — 5.2 percent — as recently as December.

"I would rather see (a higher rate) confirmed in another month before I'd say we had a problem," she said.

Nonetheless, she said, "the rate of growth we've seen in the past six months was pretty gangbusters, but it wasn't sustainable. The pace we're seeing now is certainly more sustainable."

Washington's jobless rate for May was higher than the national average, 4.6 percent, but lower than the 5.6 percent rate that Oregon reported on Monday.

The red-hot real estate market, which has provided much of the juice for the state's economy, appears to be cooling down, and that was reflected in the jobs report. Construction, which had added a revised 300 jobs in April, lost 500 jobs last month.

But aerospace continued strong, adding 400 jobs last month and 6,600 over the past 12 months. Professional, scientific and technical services — a category that includes lawyers, accountants and computer-systems administrators — added 1,400 in May and 6,100 over the past 12 months.

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

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