The Spokane-area economy added jobs at a much faster pace through the first four months of this year than it did in the year-earlier period.


In monthly reports from the Washington state Employment Security Department for January through April, an average of 4,400 more people held jobs in the Spokane metropolitan area than in the year-earlier months. In the 2004 period, a monthly average of just 1,350 more people were employed than in January through April of 2003.


The stronger 2005 figures are a very good sign of the difference between the strength of the economy this year over last year, says Jeff Zahir, the departments Spokane-based regional labor economist.


Earlier this year, officials had worried that the drought could be so extensive it would throw the regions economy back into recession, Zahir says. Yet, he says, after careful evaluations were done of how badly last winters meager snowfall might hurt energy-dependent industries, and after considerable amounts of rain fell in May and early June, fear of the droughts adverse effects abated.


Now, some forecasters are projecting that the Spokane area will add 1.4 percent to 1.8 percent more jobs in 2005, or as many as 2,800 to 3,600 jobs, Zahir says.


Im a bit more optimistic than a lot of my colleagues, he says. Im more inclined to go above 2 percent rather than less than 2 percent in projecting job growth here in 2005, he says. Job growth of 2 percent would amount to 4,000 jobs.


The metropolitan areas average annual employment grew by 1.4 percent last year in a far stronger performance than the economy turned in during 2003, when average annual employment grew by 0.8 percent, or 1,600 jobs, Zahir says. Even that, however, was better than 2002, when average annual employment fell by 1.4 percent in the wake of a national business downturn and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.


Employment growth here last year confirmed that the recession in the Spokane metropolitan area was over and that the economy was on the mend, Zahir says.


In January through April this year, the economy added jobs at monthly rates that ranged from a low of 2 percent in February to a high of 2.5 percent in March.


The Employment Security Department says that in the first four months this year, the Spokane areas total non-farm employment reached its zenith in April, when 204,300 people had jobs here. The greatest increase in any single month came in March, when 5,000 more people had jobs than in the year-earlier month.


The numbers come from a state survey of the number of employees for whom employers pay workers compensation insurance premiums. The survey is regarded as one of the most accurate counts of local employment.


Meanwhile, the unemployment rate here also improved, falling to 5.9 percent in March and matching that level in April. In March, it was down two full percentage points from the year-earlier month, when it had reached a lofty 7.9 percent, and in April it was down by 0.6 of a percentage point from its April 2004 level.