Unemployment Numbers Strong for December and All of 2017

The Washington Employment Security Department released their look at jobs and unemployment for December noting that 61-hundred jobs were added throughout the state. Labor economist Paul Turek said, "Outside of government, industries that posted the largest gains; the leisure and hospitality, manufacturing and construction."

Turek noted that they did revise November's unemployment numbers to 4.4 percent which is a record for the state since records were kept.

Turek noted that all 13 industry sectors of the economy added jobs in 2017, something that hasn't happened for a long time.

"Employment increased in every month of the year. Overall payroll gains were larger in 2017 than what they were in 2016 reflecting both the willingness of employers to create jobs and the availability of workers to fill them."

From 2016 to 2017, the labor force grew by 86-thousand people statewide