The rate of 3. In June the state added 11, nonagricultural jobs, including 8, jobs in the private sector, according to seasonally adjusted figures released by Employment Security. Leisure and hospitality, a sector negatively affected by the COVID pandemic, reported 8, more jobs in June, including 5, for food service and drinking establishments. Other sectors reporting job gains included education and health services, with 4, jobs.
Professional and business services reported an increase of jobs. While the state saw solid job growth overall, some industry sectors have seen declining job numbers. Manufacturing jobs fell by 2, over the month. Retail trade also reported a drop of 2,, including jobs in food and beverage stores. The information sector, which includes tech jobs, saw a sizable contraction, losing 5, jobs between June and June Seattle-area tech companies have laid off thousands of workers in recent months.
However, there was robust year-over-year growth in other sectors. Education and health services and leisure and hospitality also reported in June the most job gains year-over-year, with 32, more jobs and 25, more, respectively. Government was also among the top three sectors for job growth, with 25, jobs. Employment security provides seasonally adjusted figures, which account for occurrences such as holiday hiring, to make month-to-month comparisons.
The year-over-year figures are not seasonally adjusted. Twelve Washington counties are now officially in a drought emergency, the state Department of Ecology declared this week, after early snowmelt in May, low streamflows and a lack of spring rain.
Drought conditions have made fish passage difficult on the Olympic Peninsula, caused wells to run dry in Whatcom County and led to crop losses and low reservoirs in Central Washington. The rest of the state remains under a July 5 drought advisory , which is an early warning of a possible drought. This water shortage is unlikely to be made up over this summer because of the warm, dry weather expected through October, according to the state.
