Oregon Public Broadcasting

Washington State’s unemployment rate jumped nearly a full percentage point in March.

The state Employment Department announced Tuesday that widespread layoffs have pushed the jobless rate to 9.2 percent.  In February, it was 8.3 percent. 

State labor economist Greg Weeks describes the big jump as “very troubling.”

Greg Weeks: “Our job loss is increasing.  If you look at it by quarter, we’ve increased job loss every quarter since this recession started.” 

Weeks declined to predict when unemployment might top out.  Other state economists expect the job losses to continue through the rest of 2009, but at a diminishing pace. 

Washington’s economic forecast council has joblessness peaking around 10 percent.

Oregon already has double-digit unemployment.  Monday, the Oregon Employment Department announced the March rate rocketed to 12.1 percent. 

On Friday, we’ll find out if that’s the highest in the nation when the federal labor department releases unemployment figures for all the states.

Online:

Wash. State Employment Security Department