Severe winter storm and snow storms have battered the West Coast, putting pressure on employers looking for workers to fill jobs.
But the weather isn’t over yet.
Here are tips for finding a job in Seattle.
Read more:The weather has been bad in Seattle for weeks.
And now the storm has shifted, with a new round of heavy snowfall on the West coast.
The storm brought up to two feet of snowfall to Seattle, with up to six inches forecast by Wednesday evening.
“The rain is not over,” said Melissa Cavanaugh, director of the Washington State Department of Labor.
“It’s still coming.”
Seattle is one of the fastest-growing job markets in the country, with job growth of 6.2% in the last quarter.
But in many areas, snowstorms have caused problems for employers.
“It’s just really hard to fill a position, especially with the traffic,” said Sarah Olesen, a recent college graduate who works for a Seattle-based consulting firm.
“I’ve been waiting in line for 30 minutes for a job to get filled.”
The job search is toughThe storm’s effect on hiring in Seattle is the most pronounced in the Puget Sound region, where employers are scrambling to find workers, and where the snow has made it difficult to search out a new position.
“I think that has made some people hesitate,” said Alex Oleser, a senior policy analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank.
“They are not able to make any decisions until they see what the weather is like.”
Seattle has had more snowstorms in the past month than it did in the previous 10 months.
There were nine such events in the city in November alone.
“They’re still having to sort out how to respond,” said Olesers, who added that the storm also disrupted public transportation.
Employers also are facing some uncertainty about when to hire and when to fire workers.
Some have canceled job interviews, but others are hiring again.
The state has also been issuing unemployment benefits to workers who were laid off because of the storm, but the program has been stretched out by the new snow.
“The unemployment benefits have not been enough to keep up with the pace of job seekers who are looking for work,” said Steve Deitch, an economist at the University of Washington’s Center for Labor Research and Education.
“What we’ve seen is that we’re still seeing a lot of people on unemployment, but it’s just a lot more people than they were before,” he said.
The snow has put more pressure on the state economyThe storm has been blamed for causing more than $1 billion in damage to buildings, roads and utility lines.
That could be more than enough to damage the state’s economic growth.
But the state is also facing other problems.
Seattle’s economy has been growing at a slower pace than in other parts of the country.
But economists say that’s partly because of weak construction and a weak retail trade.
Seattle also is one the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the nation.
The city is home to about 10% of the nation’s residents and has more than half of the region’s jobs.
The state has about 2.3 million residents.
“We’ve been really focused on building our businesses, and the construction is slow,” said Chris Hart, president of the Association of Metropolitan Statistical Areas, a group of metro areas.
“There’s a lot to be done in the economic recovery.”
While many employers are now hiring again, others have been hiring less.
“There’s been a real lack of confidence in the labor market,” said Deitch.
“You’re not seeing a surge in job seekers.
It’s really, really difficult to fill those positions.”
The storm also put more stress on public transit.
The Metro Rail system is operating on a 24-hour schedule, which could slow down commuter service.
It could also affect the ability of people who have already been looking for jobs to find jobs.
Seattle has seen more than 5,000 reported accidents since the storm.
Officials say about 1,000 people have been killed and more than 300 injured in those accidents.
Many of the accidents have been blamed on drivers who were distracted by snow and other factors.
A report released by the Federal Transit Administration this week said the region is on track to have the lowest number of accidents per capita in the United States in 20 years.
The region is expected to have a safer environment than most other parts for passengers by 2027, the report said.
Still, there are some signs of life.
The number of people moving around in public transit systems in the region has risen sharply.
The agency reported that public transit in Seattle has seen a 21% increase in ridership in the third quarter of 2017 compared to the same quarter a year earlier.
It also said ridership is up 9% compared to last year.
The agency said the increase is driven by ridership at the light rail stations.
“People are using