State adds 12,100 jobs in November

The largest one-month gain in jobs in four years helped to lower the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate to 8.7 percent in November from 9.1 percent in October, the state Employment Security Department announced Wednesday.

The state added 12,100 jobs last month and nearly every industry sector created jobs in the October-to-November period. Professional and business services led the way with 4,200 jobs, followed by leisure and hospitality with 3,800 jobs and the construction sector, which has suffered the most during the recession and the state’s slow-growth recovery, added 2,000 jobs.

Also encouraging is that the November job growth appears to be more of a trend, rather than a one-month blip in the data, Employment Security communications director Sheryl Hutchison said.

Data revisions show that more jobs were created in October than first reported — 7,700 compared with 4,600 on a preliminary basis — followed by more than 12,000 jobs in November.

Revisions to November data will be released next month.

Another good sign was the 2,000 jobs generated by the construction industry, which likely stem from hiring for the deep bore tunnel in Seattle to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Although 2,000 jobs is a step in the right direction, the construction industry still has a long way to go after 34 percent of the state’s construction jobs were lost during the recession, Hutchison said.

Some industry sectors shed jobs last month, including state government, down 900 jobs, and the federal government, down 200 jobs. Education and health services also shed 400 jobs.

Some job seekers at the Thurston County WorkSource office in Tumwater have yet to benefit from the recent job growth.

Kelsey Sheets, 27, of Olympia, who stopped by WorkSource before heading to a job interview, said she hasn’t had a stable job since she worked at The Evergreen State College’s bookstore.

She graduated in June and has applied for hundreds of jobs; about 20 have resulted in interviews, Sheets said. Frustrating for her is that although she has a college degree, she doesn’t have enough work experience and feels she has missed out on securing a job because of it.

Sheets wants to work in an office/administrative environment for a labor group because she feels labor will continue to fight for family-wage jobs.

Sheets was unimpressed with the recent jobs data.

“Numbers are numbers, but they’re not stable,” she said.

November jobless data for Thurston and Pierce counties, not seasonally adjusted, will be released Tuesday. In October, Thurston County’s jobless rate was 7.8 percent.

Rolf Boone: 360-754-5403 rboone@theolympian.com