The state Employment Security Department today issued its Monthly Employment Report for February. The preliminary estimates are that the state added 4,200 nonfarm jobs (seasonally adjusted) from January to February and that the unemployment rate (seasonally adjusted) for the state stood at 8.2 percent in February (down from a revised 8.4 percent in January). Because of declines in the state unemployment rate, the maximum number of weeks that an individual is able to collect unemployment benefits may be reduced beginning next month:

As a result of the improved unemployment rate, the maximum weeks of unemployment benefits in Washington will likely be reduced from 99 down to 73 in mid- to late April.  Both of the federal benefits-extension programs are triggered by states’ unemployment rates.  Employment Security will announce the timing and more details of the change after receiving official notice from the federal Department of Labor.

The preliminary estimates of February employment show that the state gained 5,600 jobs in the private sector and lost 1,400 jobs in the public sector.

The Monthly Employment Report is here; the press release is here.

The positive news on seasonally adjusted employment growth from January to February was offset by revisions to the January and December numbers. Initially it was estimated that the state lost 10,700 jobs from December to January (released January 20). This was revised to a gain of 100 jobs (released February 29) and then rerevised to a loss of 4,900 (released today in this spreadsheet). The gain in jobs from December to January was initially estimated to be 13,200 (released February 29). This has now been revised down to a gain of 10,700.

As I explained in an earlier post, early estimates of monthly changes in employment are subject to sampling error because they are based on a survey of employers. Eventually much of this error is removed when the survey based estimates are benchmarked to job counts from unemployment insurance system. But until they are benchmarked, one should be cautious in interpeting employment estimates.