Thurston unemployment still 4.5% in March, but that will change in April
Thurston County residents may look back on March 2020 fondly. The economy was still in relatively good shape, according to county-level jobless data released Tuesday by the state Employment Security Department.
Thurston County’s jobless rate actually fell to 4.5 percent in March from 5.3 percent in February, the data show.
Over the same period, it also fell in Pierce County to 4.8 percent from 5.6 percent, and in Whatcom County, it fell to 4.6 percent from 5 percent, the data show.
Employment Security regional economist Jim Vleming pointed out that Gov. Jay Inslee’s orders to close schools and to stay at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded about mid-March.
Prior to that, the local economy was in pretty good shape, he said.
Job growth was flat in March in Thurston County, but combine a slight drop in the overall size of the labor force with fewer people looking for work, and the jobless rate fell, Vleming said.
But he warned that the April jobless data for the state and counties will look much different.
“It’s the last good month we’re going to see for a while,” he said about the March numbers. “April will tell a whole different story.”
Recent jobless claims show the direction the Washington state workforce is headed.
On Monday, after launching expanded jobless benefits over the weekend, Employment Security received more applications in a single day than the biggest week on record, the agency announced.
The number of applications received was not immediately available, but the biggest week on record was 182,000 applications for the week that ended March 28 — seven times more than the peak week for the Great Recession of 2008-2009.
During the recession, Thurston County peak unemployment hit 10.1. percent in February 2010, Vleming said.
The county’s jobless numbers for April will be released in May.
This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 12:51 PM.
