Unemployment officials say Washington job market looks more promising

Hiring is up in Washington state

Economists say there's reason for optimism as more people return to the workforce.

SEATTLE - Andrea Isackson has a story like so many. She was laid off from her job at a local gym due to COVID, and since then finding a new job has been near impossible.

"I feel a lot of pressure, I feel a lot of stress," Isackson says. "I feel as though I almost have to pursue other avenues for employment other than areas I’d like to be in, just out of desperation."

As a single mother of four, it’s even harder to find work with kids at home. And she says almost everything she’s found has been part-time. She says if she takes a part-time job, she’ll lose her unemployment.

"Working part-time is a really scary thing to jump into because you’re giving up a lot just to make actually less."

Ultimately she’d end up losing money.

But soon, it shouldn’t be this hard to find work, according to the experts.

"We should get back. It's just a matter of timing," says Washington State Economist with ESD, Paul Turek. Turek says job numbers are slowly creeping up, and unemployment numbers are going down.

The state Employment Security Department shows that based on online advertisements, these are the top 10 occupations that employers are looking to fill:

Registered nurse
Managers
Software developers
Sales representative
Retail salespersons
Laborers and freight
Customer service representatives
Computer occupations
Store clerks
First-line supervisor or retail sales workers

Here are the top 10 companies looking for new hires based on online ads:

Amazon
University of Washington
Microsoft
Providence health and services
Multicare health
Allied universal
Providence
Lowes companies, inc
Swedish health service
Facebook

But Turek says soon there’s going to be a huge surge in jobs for the hospitality industry - and really any job that was effected by COVID.

He says while COVID was financially disastrous for many, there are also a lot of people who didn’t lose money, and actually have a lot more of it now because they’ve had nowhere to spend it.

He says he’s confident as things open up, many people will have funds to spend, giving the economy a boost and putting many jobs back into high demand.

"It’s starting to look like we’re going to have some sunny days ahead."

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