Bad news: In February, Washington’s unemployment rate jumped from 7.8 percent to 8.4 percent.

According to the Employment Security Department, the state lost 28,200 non-agricultural jobs.

Even worse: Washington has lost more jobs than the national average: “Year over year, Washington had 97,100 fewer jobs last month than in February 2008, a 3.3 percent decrease. Nationally, employment declined by 3 percent from a year ago,” according to the press release.

Part of that, of course, may be that the state was doing relatively well until recently: Just last spring, Gov. Chris Gregoire said that Washington’s unemployment rate — at 4.4 percent at the time — was the lowest in state history. (Thanks to AP for the stats!)

For all our coverage of unemployment, go here.

Update: The Oregonian reports that Oregon’s jobless rate is at 10.8 percent.

Tags: unemployment

The Senate managed to do what didn’t work out on Saturday: Pass both the bill bringing the state into conformity with federal laws and a bill to create a worker training program.

The conformity bill addresses the way employers are charged for their unemployment insurance versus how unemployed workers are paid: The employees receive benefits based on the highest two wage periods in the last year, while employers are charged at the four-period average. Changing that was necessary: The Federal Government gave Washington a deadline to get into conformity or lose funding.

The retraining bill is a program to retrain workers who are leaving low-demand careers. The program would allow those enrolled to receive unemployment benefits while they attend qualifying retraining programs for high-demand careers, like healthcare.

The previous bill would have diverted money from the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, but that was ruled an effective tax increase under I-960, the voter-approved initiative that requires lawmakers to pass tax increases with a two-thirds vote or send them to the public for a vote.

The compromise retraining program will come from existing funds from the Employment Security Department and the Federal Workforce Investment Act.

For all our coverage on unemployment, check here.

Tags: unemployment

The Senate just voted to increase the debt limit of the Housing Finance Commission to $7 billion, from $5 billion.

Every state has a Housing Finance Commission — as you’ll find in the bill report linked above. They’re federally sanctioned government bodies that issue bonds and participate in affordable housing programs, with the goal of helping more people afford housing.

The debt limit was at $4.5 billion, but they raised it to $5 billion in 2007. This $2 billion jump is the largest since the Commission’s inception.

In testimony, those in favor of the bill said it would create 8,500 jobs, allow 12,000 people to become new homeowners and not put the state at risk.

The downside? Sen. Mark Schoesler and others said it could put the state at risk, and that loaning money for down payments wasn’t good policy.

The Senate passed the bill 37-10.

Tags: Budget, Housing Commission

I talked to Mark Veradian at the Employment Security Department this week. My question: Republicans have said that the unemployment trust fund is among the largest in the nation — at $4.1 billion — because they say the tax rate for employers is too high. So, how high is it?

Mark says, “It is difficult to compare Washington’s unemployment tax with other states, as taxing systems vary dramatically. The health of our trust fund is a combination of factors, and the rate is only a very small piece of that. A big part of the health of our trust fund has to do with our taxable wage base (the salary point at which we stop collecting taxes on an individual worker), the relatively high wages in the state compared to others, and the fact that $4 billion collects considerable interest.

“The U.S. Department of Labor uses the average tax rate as a percentage of total wages as one measure to compare states UI taxing systems. As of last year, Washington was tied for 5th using this measure. However, Michigan was ranked 4th, and their trust fund has been depleted. This illustrates why this measure isn’t particularly useful in describing the relative health of a state’s trust fund.”

OK. So, now that the House and Senate have passed the increase in unemployment benefits and the extra 13-week emergency benefits have kicked in, how will that affect the trust fund balance? (more…)

Tags: unemployment

The Senate passed a bill by 43-4 to increase unemployment benefits temporarily by $45 per week, increase the minimum to $155 (from $129) per week and increase the training fund permanently. The bill now heads back to the House (they’ve already approved the bill but not the amendment added today. It will go into effect May 3.

Here is where you can read what you need to know about the bill if you’re unemployed.

Here is where you can figure out how the increased benefit will affect the balance of the unemployment trust fund.

And here (and here) you can read testimony from the debate.

Tags: Add new tag, unemployment

Sen. Janea Holmquist offered an amendment to socialize the cost of raising the minimum weekly payment from $129 to $155.

What does that mean?

Normally, employers are charged based on a formula that takes into account how likely they are to lay people off and the rate that those employees are paid (among other things). Because the agriculture sector in this state employs a large number of seasonal workers who may depend on unemployment benefits on off seasons, if you increase the pay out amount for workers in that sector, agricultural employer rates would go up.

Holmquist’s bill would “socialize” that cost, meaning it wouldn’t be directly paid by that industry. The amendment passed without opposition.

Tags: unemployment

Van Jones, who is testifying in the Senate Environment, Water and Energy Committee now, said he was happy to be in Washington, a state that’s leading the way on “green” issues.

Jones is the founder and president of Green for All, a national organization that works to put low-income people to work on green jobs.

“Literally everything that is good for the environment is a job,” he said. “Solar panels don’t install themselves.”

Jones says that in a green economy, “the math is different. You don’t just count what you spend, you count what you save.”

“You are in a unique situation very rare in American history. This is one of those moments, like the civil war, like the New Deal, like the 60s — civil rights and women’s rights — literally in that era, when our grandkids are going to study what you did,” he said.

“This assembly will be studied. Now, the question is, are we going to do something truly transformative? Are we going to turn this breakdown into a breakthrough?”

He said the way to do that is to use green jobs as a springboard into a new economy.

Tags: economy, Environment, Van Jones

This just in from Governor Chris Gregoire’s office: Tommorrow, she’ll announce a comprehensive “Green Jobs and Climate Action” package of bills.

TVW will be there — and show the press conference at 6 p.m. tomorrow.

The announcement will be at South Puget Sound Community College, in the LEED certified Natural Sciences building.

Tags: Governor, Jobs

The Biz Buzz at The News Tribune says Gregoire is pledging to help those Russell employees who will be out of work soon. Russell announced earlier this week that they would cut 20 percent of their 2,100-person workforce.

Gregoire said in a statement: “It is frustrating that the world financial crisis continues to take a toll on Washington business, resulting in job losses for these skilled professionals. Our state’s Employment Security Department is working around the clock to help affected workers file for unemployment benefits, and more importantly, find new, well-paying jobs.”

And today: Boeing announced it will cut 10,000 more jobs. He said in a conference call that the jobs will be cut through “attrition, retirements and reductions.” Read more here.

Tags: Budget, economy, Governor, layoffs