Unemployment dipped slightly on the North Olympic Peninsula last month, thanks in part to more people commuting to Kitsap County and the Seattle area for work, a regional economist with the state Employment Security Department said.
Clallam County unemployment fell from a revised 9.8 percent in August to a preliminary 9.1 percent in September, according to jobless figures released Tuesday.
“Even though the unemployment rate went down, we do know more people are commuting out of the county,” said Elizabeth Court, economist with Employment Security.
Jefferson County unemployment went from a revised 9.5 percent in August to a preliminary 9.0 percent last month.
“The jobs picture remained absolutely flat,” Court said.
“So when [unemployment] does go down, it has to do with the fact that people are choosing to commute outside the county.”
Net loss in Clallam
While Jefferson County neither gained jobs nor lost jobs, Clallam County saw a net loss of 120 jobs from August to September, Court said.
Clallam County shed 180 jobs in the public sector — local, state and federal government work — while adding 60 new jobs in the private sector.
“The majority of those were in manufacturing, and we saw some gains in retail,” said Court, who described the private-sector gains as “really, really important” to the economic recovery.
“So that’s the good news,” she said.
In September, Clallam County had 2,610 job-seekers from a workforce of 28,610.
Jefferson County had 1,070 unemployed residents from an 11,840-member workforce.
Employment Security doesn’t count the people who have stopped looking for work in its unemployment statistics.
Grays Harbor County tied Ferry County in Eastern Washington for the state’s highest unemployment rate at 12.0 percent.
San Juan County had the lowest jobless rate at 5.3 percent.
The seasonally adjusted, statewide unemployment rate was 8.5 percent in September, and the national jobless rate was 7.8 percent, Employment Security said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
