Washington sees higher unemployment, fewer tech jobs

The Seattle-area unemployment rate is higher than the national rate and declining demand for information workers like software developers is part of the reason, some economists say.

Why it matters: The national labor market is showing signs of weakness, with employers easing hiring and a rising share of jobless Americans.

Zoom in: Anneliese Vance-Sherman, chief labor economist for Washington's Employment Security Department (ESD), told Axios by email that the decline in information sector jobs — which fell by 200 from May to June in Washington — is a particular pain point in a state with an overall slowdown in job growth.

State of play: The June jobs report offers the clearest sign yet that the economy is losing momentum , Axios' Courtenay Brown and Neil Irwin report .

• While the data is not recessionary, it shows that the Federal Reserve might not be able to continue its inflation fight without risking further weakness in the labor market.
• Some tech positions, "what we once would've called office jobs," are the weakest spot in the labor market , says Nick Bunker, an economist at Indeed.

By the numbers: The unemployment rate was 4.6% for the Seattle metropolitan area and 4.9% for Washington in June, compared to 4.1% nationally , according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

• By comparison, the Seattle area's unemployment rate was 3.6% last June and 3.4% in June 2022, per BLS.
• The national unemployment rate continues to tick up, rising from 4% to 4.1%, the highest in almost three years, per bureau data.

Yes, and: Nationally, there were only 69 postings on Indeed for developer jobs in July 2024 compared to more than 200 in February 2022.

Catch up fast: A hiring frenzy in Seattle and other tech-centered cities during the pandemic saw workers fielding multiple calls a day from recruiters and naming their price when it came to salary .

• But state data shows the Seattle area lost 11,600 information sector jobs between June 2022 and May 2024, the Seattle Times reported.

What they're saying: "Beginning toward the end of 2022, a number of high-profile layoffs were announced in the tech sector and we have seen a drop in information employment in the meantime," Vance-Sherman said.

The big picture: The rise in the jobless rate has been gradual — not the rapid rise normally seen at the onset of a recession — but once the labor market starts weakening, it tends to keep doing so, Brown and Irwin report.

The bottom line: Good-paying info sector jobs are getting harder to find.

What we're watching: Statewide unemployment data for July comes out later this week .