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Washington Recoups Great Recession Job Losses, With Caveat

It took four years, but Washington has now recovered more jobs than it lost during the Great Recession. But Wednesday’s announcement comes with a caveat.

Paul Turek, labor economist with Washington’s Employment Security Department, says it turns out the number of jobs lost during the recession was actually fewer than previously estimated.

“This means that the state employment recession was not as deep as originally estimated,” he said.

Washington’s unemployment rate for January was 6.4 percent, the lowest since the fall of 2008. Despite the jobs recovery, more than 200,000 Washingtonians are still out of work and looking for a job.

Oregon and Idaho are not yet back to pre-recession job levels. Idaho projects it will reach that point in May or June of next year.

Since January 2004, Austin Jenkins has been the Olympia-based political reporter for the Northwest News Network. In that position, Austin covers Northwest politics and public policy as well as the Washington State legislature. You can also see Austin on television as host of TVW's (the C–SPAN of Washington State) Emmy-nominated public affairs program "Inside Olympia." Prior to joining the Northwest News Network, Austin worked as a television reporter in Seattle, Portland and Boise. Austin is a graduate of Garfield High School in Seattle and Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut. Austin’s reporting has been recognized with awards from the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors, Public Radio News Directors Incorporated and the Society of Professional Journalists.