Oregon Public Broadcasting

Last month's Washington employment statistics are lackluster at best.

Or as the Employment Security Department's Dave Wallace puts it: "Adding 200 jobs, you're pretty much treading water." Spokane Public Radio's John Vlahovich has more.

Washington added a net 8,600 jobs in May, but the vast majority of them were temporary Census workers.

Dave Wallace is the acting chief economist for the Washington Employment Security Department.

Dave Wallace: "To me it feels as though it's a mixed or neutral job picture.  Nearly half of the sectors are expanding, nearly half contracted."

May was the fourth month this year in which hiring outpaced job losses in Washington. 

Even so, the net private sector gain of just 200 jobs puzzled Employment Security's Dave Wallace.

Dave Wallace: "My gut feeling is that maybe people are still sitting on the fences. There are some negative things out there that you can get depressed about. For example, you can look at Europe and what's going on there."

The state jobless rate fell from April's revised 9.3 percent to 9.1 percent in May. 

An estimated 310,000 people were looking for work last month in Washington and 265,000 received unemployment benefits.

Local statistics:    Seattle area:  120,330  8.1%    Spokane:  21130  8.9%    Tri-Cities:  9,190  6.9%    Tacoma:  37,680  9.5%    Wenatchee:  5,330  8.8%    Longview:  5,290  12%