WA employers added jobs in May, but unemployment rate stayed stuck at 5.2% ^33.3%

KUOW - By Jerry Cornfield, Washington State Standard - 6/18/2026, 9:40 PM

Negativity Bias 23.7% - Biased Writer Voice 21.8% - Recency Bias 16.9%

Washington’s unemployment rate held steady at 5.2% in May even as the economy added roughly 10,000 jobs, its highest one-month gain this year. “A strong month of growth is welcome following two consecutive months of employment losses, but it doesn’t signal any meaningful shifts on its own,” Anneliese Vance-Sherman, chief labor economist... more