People are counted as unemployed if they are at least 16 years old, are without a job and available for work, and have recently made specific efforts to find employment. The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed as a percent of the entire labor force.
Washington's monthly unemployment rate was 4.6 percent in May, 2024. This compares to 4.0 percent in the U.S. as a whole.
Washington's average annual unemployment rate in 2020 . . .
was 8.5 percent compared to 8.3 for the U.S.
was greater than the previous year's rate of 4.3 percent.
ranked 12th – from highest to lowest – out of the U.S.'s 50 states.