After months of slow but steady job growth, unemployment rose by more than 1 percentage point on the North Olympic Peninsula last month with hits to both the public and private sectors.
Clallam County’s jobless rate jumped from a revised 9.2 percent in November to a preliminary 10.4 percent in December, the state Employment Security Department reported Tuesday.
Jefferson County’s unemployment rate rose from a revised 8.6 percent in November to a preliminary 9.7 percent in December.
Clallam County lost 270 nonfarm jobs — 160 in the private sector and 110 in government.
“That’s pretty much across the board,” said Elizabeth Scott, a labor economist with Employment Security.
“I’m looking at a column of red numbers here.”
Goods-producing accounted for half of the private-sector job losses in Clallam County.
Jefferson County lost 90 nonfarm jobs — 70 in the private sector and 20 in government — last month.
Scott said this month’s unemployment rates are solid because there was very little movement in the size of the Clallam or Jefferson County labor forces.
Changes to the labor force can skew the jobless rates, she said.
“This is after months of positive trending,” Scott said.
“This is the negative. We hope the January numbers will continue the positive trend.”
Kitsap County’s jobless rate was 7.6 percent in December, Mason County’s was 10.6 percent, and Grays Harbor County’s was 13.5 percent.
Further afield, Whitman County in Southeast Washington had the state’s lowest unemployment at 5.1 percent.
Ferry County in Northeast Washington had the highest at 14.0 percent.
The state and national unemployment rate dropped from 8.7 percent in November to 8.5 percent in December.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
