Washington's unemployment rate continues slow drop

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Washington’s jobless rate continues to inch downward. The April numbers out Wednesday put unemployment at 8.1 percent . That’s down from 8.3 percent in March. Most of April’s job growth was in manufacturing.

State economist Dave Wallace says so far 2012 is proving to be a recovery year in Washington.

“We now have eight sectors that are on the positive side of the ledger, three sectors on the negative side," Wallace says. "Overall the private sector on the annual basis has grown by 1.9 percent and added 43,900 jobs.”

Government, on the other hand, continues to shed jobs -– some 2,300 in April. Last month nearly 286,000 Washingtonians were still unemployed and looking for work. And so far nearly 90,000 state residents have run out of all unemployment benefits.