The state Employment Security Department today released the monthly employment report for January. The preliminary estimate is that seasonally adjusted employment in the state increased by 24,100 from December 2012 to January 2013. This number is likely to be revised downward in future reports, however, as the ESD press release indicates:

It has been more than 17 years since the state experienced that much job growth in one month, so state economists believe the number will be revised.

Joe Elling, chief labor economist for Washington’s Employment Security Department, noted that the state’s job growth averaged more than 5,000 a month for the past 12 months.

“The trend over the past year probably gives us a better idea of what’s happening in the job market,” Elling said.

As I have explained before (see this blog post), initial monthly estimates of employment are often substantially revised. This is certain to be the case for the estimate released today. A separate estimate of employment based on a survey of households, also released by ESD today, shows that the seasonally adjusted number of Washington residents with jobs fell by 3,900 from December 2012 and January 2013.

The ESD press release is available here. The employment report itself is available here.