Washington ESD unemployment rates when Obama left office - historical comparison question

Thank you! That's exactly what I was looking for. Do you happen to know if Washington ESD publishes their own historical reports that break this down by county?

Yes, Washington ESD has county-level data in their monthly labor market reports. You can find archived reports on their website going back to 2010.

It's for a research project comparing policy transitions and their impact on state-level employment trends.

Actually it's really interesting to look at historical trends, especially comparing how different states recovered from the 2008 recession versus national averages.

That matches what I remember too. The tech sector was doing well but other industries were still struggling to fully recover.

I was having such a hard time getting through to Washington ESD during that period. The phone system was already overwhelmed even before the pandemic hit.

Interesting, I hadn't heard of that service before. Right now I'm just looking for publicly available data though.

I've used Claimyr before when I couldn't get through to Washington ESD about my claim status. It actually worked pretty well for connecting with agents.

Good point. I'm trying to get a complete picture of the labor market conditions during that presidential transition.

Don't forget about the regional variations too. King County had very different unemployment patterns than eastern Washington counties.

That's helpful context. Were there any specific industries that were still lagging behind in terms of job recovery at that point?

Manufacturing and construction were still recovering more slowly than services and tech. Aerospace was doing well because of Boeing's order backlog.

Thanks! I'll check that out. Sometimes their website navigation isn't the most intuitive but I'll dig around.

Oh man, adjudication delays are the worst now. I had a claim stuck for 8 weeks earlier this year before it finally got resolved.

That's when services like Claimyr really come in handy - when you need to actually talk to someone at Washington ESD to figure out what's holding up your claim.

Perfect! That sounds like exactly what I need for creating visualizations. Thanks for the tip.

FRED is amazing for economic research. You can download the data in multiple formats too.

Exactly - I'm comparing unemployment trends during several different presidential transitions to see if there are any consistent patterns.

That's a really interesting research angle. I'd love to see what you find out about correlation versus causation in those transitions.

True, but that was mainly concentrated in King County. Rural counties were still struggling with much higher unemployment rates.

The regional disparity in Washington has always been pretty stark. Seattle metro versus everywhere else is like two different economies.

That would definitely add another dimension to the analysis. Do they make that historical demographic data easily accessible?

Some of it is in their annual reports, but you might need to request specific datasets for detailed demographic breakdowns from 2017.

How does that service work exactly? Do they just keep calling until they get through?

Yeah basically they handle the calling and waiting on hold, then connect you when they reach an actual person. Saved me so much time and frustration.

Good point about revisions. I'll make sure to note which version of the data I'm using in my research documentation.

Did that wage increase have any measurable impact on unemployment rates that you know of?

There were some studies done but the results were mixed. Hard to separate the minimum wage effect from other economic factors happening at the same time.

That's a great suggestion. Duration of unemployment is definitely an important piece of the puzzle I hadn't considered.

Duration data would also help you understand whether the low unemployment rate reflected a healthy job market or just people dropping out of the labor force.

Excellent resource! I'll definitely check out their archived forecasts. Having the analysis alongside the raw data would be really valuable.

Thanks for the reminder about seasonal adjustments. I'll make sure I'm consistent in which type of data I'm using across all the time periods I'm comparing.

Good to know there are options for actually reaching them when needed. Their phone system can be impossible sometimes.

I'm planning to present it at a regional economics conference later this year. If it goes well, I might try to get it published in a policy journal.