Employee Benefits

Washington firms are less likely to provide every kind of benefit now than in 2002, when the Employment Security Department began collecting data. The proportion of firms providing health insurance for full-time workers dropped from 76% in 2002 to 54% in 2010, and fewer firms are providing retirement and paid leave benefits.

Part-time workers – the majority of whom are women – are far less likely to receive every type of employer-sponsored benefit. In 2010, only 15% of businesses provided retirement benefits and 22% provided vacation to parttime employees. Just 11% offered health benefits to part-timers.

Source: Washington State Employment Security Department

Data updated annually Last updated 03/19/2012

Monthly Unemployment Rate

For most of 2011, the unemployment rate hovered around 9.2%. However, after August the monthly rate began to decline significantly, dropping from 9.3% to 8.6% – the same as the national rate – by the end of the year. The unemployment rate has continued to decline into 2012, to 8.1% in April.

However, these official unemployment numbers do not include the many discouraged people who are no longer actively looking for employment, and others who are working part time or in “make-do” jobs because of the scarcity of desirable jobs. Some of these individuals are captured in the underemployment rate, which reached 17.8% for Washingtonians in 2011.

Source: Washington State Employment Security Department

Data updated monthly Last updated 05/16/2012

Poverty

Washington’s overall poverty rate increased in both 2009 and 2010. More than one in eight Washingtonians lived below the federal poverty level in 2010 - or income less than $22,314 for a family of four. Rates increased for those earning near-poverty incomes, as well. In 2010, three in ten Washingtonians earned less than 200% of the federal poverty level. For families with children, rates are even higher – more than one in six Washington families with children under 18 lived below the federal poverty level in 2010.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey

Data updated annually Last updated 03/19/2012

Average Employment

Washington’s average employment numbers are rising again post-recession, as the state has begun to slowly add jobs in most sectors. During the previous recession of the early 2000s, the state lost an average of 55,000 jobs before sectors began adding again. During the Great Recession, Washington’s industries shed more than three times that – nearly 173,000 jobs – before beginning to add in 2011. Early data for 2012 shows slow growth is continuing.

Note: Data for 2012 is preliminary.

Source: Washington State Employment Security Department

Data updated monthly Last updated 05/16/2012