Washington drops from 5th to 6th in Milken Science and Technology Index
The Milken Institute today released its 2010 State Science and Technology Index. Washington fell to 6th from the 5th place it held in the 2008 Milken rankings, while Utah moved up to 5th from 8th. Massachusetts, Maryland, Colorado and California retained the top four spots. The report notes: Washington slipped to sixth overall this year […]
January 25 , 2011 - Kriss Sjoblom
S&P/Case-Shiller Indices Show Seattle-Area House Prices Continue to Decline
Standard and Poor’s today released the S&P/Case-Shiller House Price Indices for November. S&P’s Davd Blitzer noted: “With these numbers more analysts will be calling for a double-dip in home prices.” As the chart below shows, Seattle’s first dip has yet to hit bottom. The November value of the seasonally adjusted index for Seattle is 140.77, […]
January 11 , 2011 - Kriss Sjoblom
January Collections Report
The Office of the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council today released the January Economic and Revenue Update. The “headline” numbers show collections for the most recent month to be $36.9 million (3.4 percent) greater than anticipated under the November revenue forecast. Cumulatively, for the two months since the November forecast, revenues are $61.0 million (2.3 […]
December 13 , 2010 - Kriss Sjoblom
December Revenue Collections Report
The Economic and Revenue Forecast Council’s monthly Economic and Revenue Update came out today. Revenue for the November 11 to December 10 collection period was $1,593.4 million, $24.1 greater than had been forecast. However, $20.9 million of the $24.1 million positive variance was due to one-time items such as audit payments and unclaimed property transfers […]
December 03 , 2010 - Richard S. Davis
Unemployment rate climbs to 9.8 percent
Here’s the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner’s statement on the latest employment situation. In a nutshell, the commissioner reports: Nonfarm payroll employment was essentially unchanged in November (+39,000), and the unemployment rate edged up to 9.8 percent. The jobless rate had been 9.6 percent in each of the prior 3 months. Payroll employment has increased […]
November 19 , 2010 - Kriss Sjoblom
One More Time: Revenue Forecast Reduced Again
The Economic and Revenue Forecast Council met yesterday and adopted revised forecasts of general fund revenues for the current (2009–11) and upcoming (2011–13) biennia. For 2009–11, the new forecast is $28,127 million, a decrease of $385 million from the September forecast. Of this decrease, $64 million is due to the passage of Initiative 1107, which […]
November 12 , 2010 - Kriss Sjoblom
Economic and Revenue Update
The state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (EFRC) yesterday issued its monthly Economic and Revenue Update (available here). The November Update is the second since EFRC’s September revenue forecast, and, as was the case in October, collections have come in above forecast. Major General Fund-State (GF-S) revenues for the October 11, 2010 – November 10, […]
October 22 , 2010 - Kriss Sjoblom
Employment Growth: Metro Seattle vs. the Bay Area
The chart below compares job growth since 1990 in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara Metropolitan Statistical Areas. Employment is seasonally adjusted and indexed so that in each case the January 1990 value is equal to 100. The Seattle MSA (comprising King, Snohomish and Pierce Counties) had 28.1 percent more jobs in August […]
June 14 , 2010 - Kriss Sjoblom
June Economic and Revenue Update
Last Friday, the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (EFRC) posted its monthly progress report, the Economic and Revenue Update, for June. The update sets the stage for Thursday, when EFRC will issue its quarterly update to the state revenue forecast. The U.S. economy has performed largely as anticipated in the February forecast, The economic recovery […]
April 15 , 2010 - Kriss Sjoblom
Seattle Lost More Than 23,000 Private Sector Jobs Between March 2008 and March 2009
The Puget Sound Regional Council has posted estimates of employment in March 2009 for the cities in the four-county PSRC region here. From March 2008 to March 2009, the number of private sector jobs in the city of Seattle fell by 23,173 (5.6%), from 415,165 to 391,992. Of the lost jobs, 3,729 were in construction. […]