“On Tuesday [Dec. 15], the state Employment Security Department released jobless data showing that county unemployment increased to 7.5 percent last month from a revised 6.9 percent unemployment rate in October.

The South Sound economy shed jobs in professional and business services and leisure and hospitality, but added 500 seasonal holiday jobs and another 500 jobs in government and education for a net gain of 200 nonfarm jobs in the October-to-November period, regional economist Jim Vleming said.

The total number of people looking for work in the county increased to 10,040 last month from 9,160 in October, according to the ESD data,” quoting The Olympian.

Locally, with the Saars Market closure and several other Yelm businesses with lay-offs, as I mentioned previously, Yelm will have to grapple with lower revenues in the 1st quarter of 2010.
Lost jobs means less people spending, meaning less sales taxes collected, means lower revenues for local governments.