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Finding Jobs in Seattle
By admin | January 16, 2008
During the month of November, Washington state’s unemployment fell to 4.7 percent, bringing it down to equal the national average. In the previous month the percent of the population without employment was .01 percent higher. Fairing better than the rest of the country, Seattle’s unemployment rate also decreased from 4 percent to 3.7 percent. In November of 2006, 4.3 percent of the population was unable to find work. According to Governor Chris Gregoire, the state has the lowest unemployment rate in its current history. He went on to say that Washington is in the process of creating even more jobs.
One company with plans to add jobs in Seattle is the internet company Cobalt Group, which plans on creating 300 new positions within in the next three months. Cobalt handles internet marketing for a third of the countries automotive dealers and hopes to soon increase their clientele. Most of the jobs in Seattle created by the Cobalt Group will either be search engine marketing positions or handle content management for dealer’s websites.
Despite the fact that the city’s unemployment rate is currently low, many are worried that a economical recession could be on its way. Partially due to the housing crisis, some local employers are scaling back their operations in order to cut cost. Washington Mutual recently did away with 3,000 jobs in Seattle and technology companies did away with approximately 1,200 positions in 2007. Another local company that plans do away with some of the jobs in Seattle that they provide is InfoSpace. The company has decided to focus solely on internet search, also in hopes of cutting costs. InfoSpace will be eliminating 35 jobs in the Seattle area by January 18th. According to Alan Greenspan, there is a 50 percent chance that a national recession is on its way.
In event that this does happen, economist believe that Seattle will fair better than the rest of the country due to the fact that the local economy is more global and diverse. Jim Warjone, the chairman and chief executive of Port Blakely Cos, says that Seattle “won’t see anything like the nation is seeing.” He went on to say that the city “is in a wonderful position because it is truly at the edge of the global market.”
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