Jobless rate hits 6-year low

Washington is approaching a magic economic place known as full employment, where anyone who wants a job can eventually find one — in theory.

The state unemployment rate hit a six-year low of 4.7 percent in January and continued a steady pace of job growth in a broad spectrum of industries, according to a report released Tuesday by the state Employment Security Department.

Economists don't know the exact jobless rate that marks full employment, which is when "whoever is looking for a job will be able to find a job, [although] maybe not quite the job that the person is looking for," said the state's chief economist, Chang Mook Sohn.

In Washington's expanding economy, it's probably somewhere in the low 4-percent range, Sohn ventured.

Demand for skilled workers appears to be outstripping supply in some industries, such as trucking, which added 600 jobs since January 2005.

"There is a nationwide driver shortage, and I am going to hire every guy I can hire until they tell me to stop," said Jennifer Nolan, a recruiter with Puget Sound Truck Lines.

She's looking for drivers who have at least two years' experience behind the wheel and a squeaky-clean record to haul wood chips and other residual wood products on local routes.

"There's a shortage of qualified applicants," Nolan said.

The American Trucking Association estimates it needs 20,000 more long-haul truckers, who make up about 38 percent of truck drivers. That number is expected to grow to 111,000 by 2014.

Demographic trends are exacerbating the national shortage. An association study found that on top of growing demand, 219,000 truckers will be needed in the next decade to replace retiring baby boomers.

That problem is familiar to the health-care industry, which added 10,100 jobs in Washington since last January. Baby boomers, whose looming retirements will thin the ranks in hospitals and clinics, are expected to generate greater demand for health-care services as they age.

The problem is still a few years down the road, though.

Today, the nursing-vacancy rate in Washington hospitals is stable at 6 percent, said Ed Phippen, program director at the Health Work Force Institute, a group focused on growing the number of health-care professionals in Washington.

Hospitals are partnering with colleges and universities to expand training programs "so we can meet demand today and in the future," Phippen said.

Baby-boomer demographics also can be linked to growth in construction, which added 17,100 jobs during the 12 months ended in January. From December to January, construction companies created 3,800 jobs.

All those high-rise condos going up in Seattle — many of which are aimed at baby boomers ready to return to the city after life in the suburbs — are generating lots of business for companies such as commercial drywall contractor Pacific Construction Systems.

The Bellevue contractor has increased its staff about 25 percent to 360 in roughly the past 18 months to handle a surge in business from projects like 2200 on Westlake Avenue and Denny Way and Cosmopolitan Tower, said Doug Bair, a company vice president.

Becoming a union drywaller requires a four-year apprenticeship, so for Bair's company, a union shop, finding workers is even tougher.

"The union hall is basically empty," Bair said. "Everyone in the union is out working for someone."

Benjamin J. Romano: 206-464-2149 or bromano@seattletimes.com