Huge Jump in Snohomish County Unemployment!

Snohomish County employment took a dive in September and went from 9.4 to 10.1% unemployed for the biggest jump in one month since the great depression. Along with that and in a stunning report today, Washington State now has some 331,000 unemployed collecting unemployment insurance that’s what they call the ‘seasonably adjusted’ U3 number. The U6 number is now up to 580,000 and that includes everyone else who has no job or has given up trying to find one in the state. I was surprised that the Seattle Times is only reporting the ‘not seasonably adjusted’ number of 312,690! Is it possible that they are trying to protect Governor Quagmire who is missing and no where to be seen today?

As I predicted in an earlier piece, Snohomish County has suffered the biggest jump in unemployment this last month of all the counties in the state. This one goes into the record books. We now have more than 39,000 on unemployment insurance the U3 number while the U6 number now stands at 68,000 folks who have given up trying to find a job which includes the U3 folks. I would point out that the 10.1% number is ‘not seasonably adjusted’ so it is entirely possible the final unemployment number may come in at 10.4%.  And as expected the awful Everett Herald hid the story way down on its website trying to shield their darling County Executive Democrat Aaron Reardon who is presiding over this disaster!

Unemployment has decimated retail business in the State of Washington with retail sales down more than 14% during the last reporting period. Snohomish County’s numbers were a disaster with a 14.82% drop in sales with Everett particularly hard hit with a decline of 21% followed by Lynnwood at 18%. You can expect that this holiday season will see some of the worst retail sales numbers in three decades leading to even more unemployment as retail stores layoff more workers.

The fallout from this economic disaster has already shown itself with some 6,000 home foreclosures this quarter. I also received word today that it is now estimated that FHA default rates in the state are running at 8.8% of ALL outstanding loans and that more than 13.7% of the balance of the FHA loans are now in “past due status”. I understand that in Snohomish County those numbers are much worse than they are statewide with SNO County default rates running at 10% or more.

What does all of this mean? Things may not get any better any time soon now that statistics indicate that this national recession we are in is getting close to the great depression.  Locally this dramatic downturn in employment translates into significant reductions in tax collections at the State and County levels along with the cities. This many foreclosures may mean that property tax revenues will see some decline but the big problem is the sales tax collections and the looming state budget deficit. I understand that the possible shortfall facing the State Legislature when it comes back to Olympia this coming January will exceed 3 that’s THREE Billion dollars! I am being told that the story indicating the shortfall was a little less than 2 Billion was a red herring released by those close to Frank Chopp the Democratic Speaker of the State House. They did it as a public relations move while state Democrats began talks of MAJOR TAX increases behind the scenes. I learned today that there is a plan being bounced around by the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate in Olympia to RAID the state’s employee’s pension fund or should I use the word borrow a few billion to help cover this state revenue shortfall! I will have a blog on this as soon as I get the details. Stay with Red County.

Editor’s note: I am stunned that Christine Gregoire and Aaron Reardon are missing in action! There are tens of thousands of families that are truly hurting in this state at a time when we go into winter and the traditional holidays. These elected officials never mention this disaster or even try to come up with ways to ease the suffering. I understand that homelessness is at an all time high in Seattle, Tacoma and Everett. I believe that both these leaders are acting irresponsibly and that is very disturbing. I believe that public relation conferences about ‘health care’ and ‘climate change’ are the last things on the minds of the families that are going through this disaster.