LYNNWOOD, Wash. — A new study comparing the number of job openings in each state has ranked Washington last with a rate of 6% since the fourth quarter of 2021.
However, if it feels like you're still seeing a lot of "Help Wanted" signs, you are not alone. Experts say it is still an employee's market.
To break down why Washington is ranked last, labor economist Anneliese Vance-Sherman said it's not that there aren't jobs in Washington, but the growth rate compared to other states isn't as high.
"We have a lot of sectors, especially in urban Washington, that had a lot of stability kind of built in from early on," said Vance-Sherman, who works with the Employment Security Department.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Washington's leisure and hospitality industry lost 40% of its jobs in two months.
Nationally, the same industry had a job openings rate of 10.5%, which is still higher than Washington's roughly 6%.
"In Washington, we were buffered by having a very strong tech economy and a lot of workers that could do their jobs from home," said Vance-Sherman.
With an unemployment rate in Washington at 4.2%, officials in the North Sound say their businesses are struggling to find employees.
The city of Lynnwood is holding a job fair Thursday afternoon with 65 employers like Amazon, Nordstrom and the city itself, hiring for entry-level to middle management jobs.
The fair will be held at the Lynnwood Convention Center from 4-7 p.m. There will also be support for potential applicants looking for resume reviews or interview help.