The state employment security department (ESD) released the monthly employment report today. The preliminary estimates are that the state added 8,800 jobs (seasonally adjusted) between June and July and that the unemployment rate in July was 6.9 percent (seasonally adjusted). The estimate of the number of jobs added from May to June was increased from 9,800 to 10,700.

I often caution in this blog that the initial estimates of employment growth are derived from a national survey of employers. The number of Washington employers captured in the survey is not that great, and therefore the initial estimates of monthly state employment growth are prone to sampling error. The survey-based estimates are adjusted (sometimes substantially) when
complete job counts become available from unemployment insurance tax records. The process of reconciling the survey-based employment estimates to the UI job counts is called “benchmarking.”

Today ESD for the first time published employment estimates benchmarked to March 2013 UI job counts. (Estimates benchmarked to the December 2012 UI job counts were first published in May.) The chart below compares the nonfarm employment estimates published today with those published last month. Benchmarking reduced the estimated number of jobs in March by 10,600. The estimated growth in jobs from December 2012 to January 2013 was reduced from 24,200 to 9,400.

The full August employment report is available here.