From the Seattle PI

By next week, more than a half-million residents in the state will have collected almost $4.7 billion in unemployment benefits. Both numbers are records.

“This has been another demanding year for Employment Security, but even more challenging for those who still can’t find a job after months and months of looking,” said Joel Sacks, deputy commissioner of the Employment Security Department, in a news release.

There is little good news in the year-end statistics.

In February, the unemployment rate in the state reached a seasonally adjusted 9.5 percent. That was the highest since the early 1980s. The total number of unemployed people in February was 363,160

Clark County remain in excess of 13% unemployment, having shed 4,500 private sector jobs.

That ‘hopey changey thing’ isn’t working out too well here.