August unemployment numbers released

The state’s Employment Security Department released its latest unemployment numbers today for the month of August.  The rate increased to 9.2 percent from July’s revised rate of 8.9 percent.

Washington lost an estimated 8,000 non-agricultural jobs in August. Industries with the largest declines were in professional and business services (2,500 jobs), retail trade (2,400 jobs), and education and health services (1,800 jobs).  More than 319,000 Washington residents were unemployed and looking for work in July.

Employment Security Department Commissioner Karen Lee used today’s announcement to issue a call to the federal government to extend unemployment benefits. “The recession may be coming to an end, but thousands of our unemployed workers will run out of unemployment benefits before the job market begins to recover,” said Lee.  “We need Congress to authorize another extension for unemployment benefits.”

Tags: economy, unemployment, unemployment benefits