Washington gains 100,000 new jobs

OLYMPIA — Washington gained more than 100,000 new jobs in the past year and most of it was in the private sector, the state’s labor economist said today.

January’s monthly employment report from the state Employment Security Department estimates employment increased by 100,500 from January 2014 to January 2015, on a not seasonally adjusted basis.

Of those, 89,800 new jobs were created in the private sector and 10,700 new jobs in the public sector.

“This is another good labor market report,” state labor economist Paul Turek said in a statement. “With more than 100,000 new since January 2014 and continued growth in the labor force, Washington’s economy remains strong. We saw job growth in every industry with the exception of one.”

Washington’s unemployment rate for January 2015 was 6.4 percent while the U.S. unemployment rate was 5.7, according to preliminary estimates by the Bureau of Labor Statistics released today.

Unemployment in the Seattle/Bellevue/Everett area was at 4.6 percent.

The top five industry sectors with the largest employment gains from January 2014 to January 2015 were:

Professional and business services with 17,200 new jobs;

Construction with 17,000 jobs;

Retail trade with 16,200 jobs;

Education and health services with 13,000 new jobs; and

Government with 10,700 new jobs.

The mining and logging industry lost 100 jobs from January 2014 to January this year.