State Unemployment Rises to 9.5 Percent
The state's unemployment rate for December climbed to 9.5 percent, as reported by the Employment Security Department.
Washington’s unemployment rate rose in December to 9.5 percent from November’s downwardly revised level of 9.0 percent. The labor force decreased by 0.2 percent between November and December while the number of unemployed jumped by 5.9 percent.
As the Seattle Times notes, the decline in jobs is the worst since the Boeing Bust.
Last year was the worst in recent history for job losses in Washington, the state Employment Security Department confirmed Wednesday: 106,200 jobs, or 3.6 percent of payroll employment here, were eliminated in 2009.
Those figures blow past the recession at the start of the 2000s and the double-dip recession of 1981-82. The last comparable downturn was the "Boeing bust" of 1970, when the state lost 5.3 percent of its payroll jobs, or 58,900 positions in that era's much smaller economy.
Given the precarious situation, AWB president Don Brunell offers some good advice to lawmakers.
What can the Governor and lawmakers currently meeting in Olympia do about it? On unemployment, don't add more costs to employers by increasing benefits as union officials want. Doing so will raise UI taxes to struggling employers.
Even without the expanded benefits, Erik Smith writes that employers - who just saw enormous hikes in the UI taxes - can expect more of the same next year.
When you make hiring more expensive, you get fewer new hires. Policy makes a difference. Expanding UI benefits now guarantees more unemployment.
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