Oregon Public Broadcasting

Washington state's unemployment rate fell ever so slightly for the fourth straight month, dropping to 8.9 percent in July.  Some of the decline was simply due to discouraged workers dropping out of the labor force. 

Meanwhile in Oregon, the unemployment rate remains stuck around ten-and-a-half percent.  Both states released updated monthly jobs figures Tuesday. 

Washington state labor economist Dave Wallace says layoffs in the government sector are making for a "tepid" recovery.

Dave Wallace: "If we look at the numbers and we take out the Census impact, it's been pretty flat.  So I would agree that I'm a little less optimistic than I was several months back."

Wallace announced Washington's jobless rate dropped one-tenth of one percent in July from June's revised rate of 9 percent.

In Oregon, the 10.6 percent July unemployment rate keeps it in the same range it's been in for nine months.

Oregon's jobless rate is a full percentage point above the national average (9.5%), while Washington state's labor force is about half a percentage point better off than the nation as a whole.