An article in Vancouver's Columbian Newspaper recapped Clark County's Jobless Rate for April. These numbers were provided by Scott Bailey, Regional Labor Economist for the Washington State Security Division. Clark County added 500 new jobs which reflected an improvement in our over all jobless rate to 13.5% compared to 14.6% in March. We can compare April's 13.7% to a year ago when the jobless rate was 13.0%.
While 500 new jobs is good news, we are cautioned that they are mostly identified as seasonal jobs like construction work, meaning that at the end of the summer, many will go away. Seasonal or not, the fact that 500 people are back to work is cause for at least a smile. The Clark County jobless claims saw a huge improvement from a year ago; 2,423 in April, down from 3,522 in 2009. That is a 32% reduction in claims. Again, another reason to wear a smile. For the state of Washington, we saw the jobless rate move from 9.5% in March to 9.2% in April.
Comments (3)Subscribe to CommentsComment