The state Employment Security Department released its Monthly Employment Report today. According to preliminary estimates from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the state gained 2,400 jobs, net, seasonally adjusted (SA), from August to September. The private sector is estimated to have gained 12,100 jobs (SA) while the public sector lost 9,700 (SA). Most of the lost public sector jobs were in local education.

These numbers should be treated with some caution, however, as recent months’ preliminary estimates have been significantly revised when BLS received more complete data from employers. Such was the case today as BLS revised upward its estimate of July to August employment growth from 19,800 to 69,000.

BLS estimates the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the state for September to be 7.8 percent, down from 8.4 percent (revised) in August. BLS unemployment rate estimates are based a monthly survey of households conducted for BLS by the Census Bureau. The reference period for this survey is the calendar week that includes the 12th day of the month.

For the Seattle metro area, the estimated September unemployment rate is 7.0 percent (SA) down from 7.3 percent (SA, revised) for August.

The full report is available here.