The state Employment Security Department released its Monthly Employment Report today. The report included preliminary estimates of employment for August and revised estimates of employment for June and July.

According to preliminary estimates from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the state gained 19,800 jobs, net, seasonally adjusted (SA), from July to August. This number should be treated with caution, however, as recent months’ preliminary estimates have been significantly revised when BLS received more complete data from employers.

Employment estimates are based on BLS’s monthly survey of employers. The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the collection of data for this survey. For this reason, the initial estimates of employment for recent months have been subject to unusually large revisions. For example, the initial estimate of June to July job growth was today revised up by 39,100 to 140,600 from the 71,500 that was originally reported. The estimate of May to June job growth was today revised down by 32,400 to 108,200.

The table below show the initial estimates and subsequent revised estimates for May, June, July and August gains in employment from the preceding months.

BLS estimates the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the state for August to be 8.5 percent, down from 10.2 percent (revised) in June. 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 August unemployment rate is 7.4 percent (SA) down from 8.2 percent (SA, revised) for July.

The full report is available here.