Some insights from the February state employment report.

• Year over year, aerospace manufacturing continues to perk along, growing 6.5 percent. But the sector added only 100 workers between January and February. Boeing itself says that it added 210 workers in that time, which suggests that some of its in-state suppliers have laid people off. That would mirror reports from outside the state of 787 suppliers letting people go because of the delays getting that airplane into full production. In any case, employment levels in aerospace may be hitting a plateau. This will bear close watching. Increased Boeing employment has been an economic driver for the state, and one of the reasons most economists feel we'll weather any national recession.
• But the state's other big economic driver, software, continues to grow, adding 3.2 percent more jobs over the year, with 300 new jobs between for the month.
• Construction employment continues to go up, even as housing starts fall. The growth wasn't that great ? just under 1 percent ? but it's still growth. Employment in the construction engineering disciplines fell 5.6 percent, offsetting 2.5 percent growth among specialty contractors.
• Employment in forest products fell, with the logging workforce dropping 5.9 percent and the sawmill workforce dropping 4.5 percent. This, unfortunately, is very much in line with what we've been hearing from CEOs at places like Potlatch and Pope Resources.
• Another sign of the housing slump - employment in finance and insurance is down about 1.3 percent over the year, very likely the result of the layoffs caused WaMu's decision to shut down its subprime mortgage lending business. But - and this is interesting - this sector added 300 jobs between January and February.
• And here's one that puzzles me: There was a big fall-off (8.3 percent - in round numbers, 1,600 jobs) in bookkeeping and accounting. This is puzzling. Everyone's talking about how the exodus of baby boomers from the workforce is creating new demand for accountants to help manage their retirement funds. Besides, February is the start of tax season, and one would expect that layoffs would take place after they were over. If you've got an insight as to what's going on here, please drop me a line.

The state as a whole added 1.7 percent more jobs year-over-year. The Tri-Cities continues to hum along with a 5 percent increase, while the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett metro area had 2.7 percent job growth. Over in the farm country, Moses Lake added 3.2 percent more jobs, while Asotin County grew by 3.0 percent. (Go Clarkston!) On the other hand, Bremerton posted really sluggish 0.6 percent growth, and Spokane was up only 0.8 percent.