Wash unemployment rate jumps to 6.3 percent in Oct

Washington's unemployment rate jumped more than half a percentage point to 6.3 percent in October - the highest rate in about four years - even without counting the Machinists union strike at Boeing Co.

The strike, which ended in early November, affected about 24,000 workers. But state economists don't count striking workers as unemployed, so the walkout didn't contribute to the unemployment rate.

Instead, Washington's rising unemployment was sparked by weakness across nearly all economic sectors, officials said Tuesday.

That was an unwelcome change from September, when unemployment decreased for the first time in five months, to 5.7 percent. October's unemployment also showed a significant rise from a year earlier, when the jobless rate was just 4.8 percent.

The national unemployment rate for October was slightly higher than Washington's, at 6.5 percent. State officials said that indicates Washington's economy is "in relatively better shape at the moment."

Economists said nearly 204,000 Washingtonians were unemployed and looking for work last month.

The retail sector and education services each lost about 1,700 jobs. Aside from the Boeing walkout, the manufacturing sector shed about 1,300 jobs. Construction lost about 1,100 jobs, continuing a string of monthly job losses that started in January.

Big gains came in the government sector, which was up by about 6,000 jobs, mostly in local government.

Subtracting the effects of the Machinists strike, the tally of Washington jobs in October remained steady compared with a year ago. Officials said the national job supply dropped by about 0.8 percent in the past year.

After discounting the temporary strike losses, the state gained about 800 jobs in October, and held steady year-over-year. Economists said it was the eighth straight month of modest annual job growth: above zero, but less than 2 percent.

That contrasts with the recession that followed 9/11, when Washington saw job losses for more than two years.

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