The Washington state Employment Security Department announced today preliminary August employment data that put the Spokane County unemployment rate at 7.2 percent, its lowest level since December 2008.
The preliminary August figure is down from 8.6 percent in August 2012 and from 7.9 percent this July.
A separate, preliminary state survey said 212,000 people held nonagricultural wage and salary jobs in Spokane County in August, up from 205,300 in the year-earlier month and from 210,900 in July.
The natural resources and mining sector had the largest percentage gains in year-over-year comparisons, with the number of jobs increasing 20 percent. The leisure and hospitality industry and food services and drinking places market also had double-digit increases in employment, 13 percent and 12 percent, respectively. The largest percentage decrease occurred in the finance and insurance sector, which had a 6 percent decline in employment in August compared with the year-earlier month.
Statewide, the unemployment rate dropped to 6.8 percent in August, down from 8.1 percent in the year-earlier period but holding steady compared with July's figure.
Total nonfarm wage and salary jobs statewide rose to 2,948,600 in August, up from 2,881,800 a year earlier but down from 2,956,600 in July.