Melanie Dressel
Analyst · Brett Rabatin of Sterne Agee
Thanks, Andy. We're continuing to see many signs of optimism here in the Pacific Northwest, as economic pace picks up speed and improvement is evident across a wide range of indicators. This is the case in both Washington and Oregon, particularly in our metropolitan areas of Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue and the Portland, Vancouver markets.
Of course, there is still room for improvement. The recovery is not yet complete. The labor market still shows some weakness in many non-metropolitan areas of the Northwest. Oregon's economy is continuing to expand at a slightly above average pace. The unemployment rate for March was 6.9%, the lowest level since August of 2008, and the state's monthly job gain of 7,500 in March was the largest since November of 2005. It was the ninth consecutive month of job growth in the state, and all major industries added jobs. In fact, sectors including construction, leisure and hospitality and healthcare added more than 1,000 jobs each.
Construction remains the fastest growing industry with job growth 4x faster than the overall economy. And construction surpassed 80,000 jobs for the first time in 5 years, shooting up by 1,800 jobs in March.
Manufacturing also continues to power Oregon's economy. The state's manufacturing output is the 10th highest in the country and about 70% of which is in computer and electronic product.
Additionally, we've seen a return of labor force growth in Oregon. Economists from the University of Oregon believe the rapid job growth in recent months may be pulling people back into the labor market. They also expect job opportunities and job creation to increase in the coming months.
There's been a rebound in building permits, too. Commercial construction, especially at Intel's Hillsboro campus, has been a big contributor. In December, Oregon ranked third in the nation for job growth.
The unemployment rate in Washington state for March was 6.3%, relatively unchanged from February. However, the state added an estimated 6,700 jobs for the month, with the biggest gains in the professional and business services, retail, mortgage servicing and information sectors. While employment is rising in most sectors, the unemployment rate held steady because of job losses in government and the wholesale trade.
The labor force has risen by about 10,000 compared with the previous month, a sign that people are moving into the job market and the economy is holding its own.
Washington was 1 of 16 states in the country to achieve record levels of exports in 2013. Washington's exports were third in the country after Texas and California, with $81.9 billion. Oregon also showed growth in exports last year, ranking 24th in the country.
Earlier this month, Boeing announced that it will transfer 1,000 research engineering jobs from the Puget Sound area to Southern California by the end of next year. While Boeing continues to invest heavily in Washington and employ more than 81,000 people here, we are watching this news closely.
The housing market in the Pacific Northwest has been somewhat uneven, but remained stronger than a year ago. Sales in February of existing homes declined about 7% year-over-year, but home prices continued to rise due to limited inventory and were up 9% from a year ago. The shortage of listings is a problem. But new home construction is rising, and we're hearing that many people are interested in selling now that their mortgages are no longer under water. We believe that the housing market is finding its balance.
To summarize, we're feeling increasingly optimistic as the economy continues its steady improvement here in the Pacific Northwest. The high unemployment rates, which had been such a drag on the economy, really seems to be turning a corner.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the call, and Clint covered in more detail, we're pleased with the earnings accretion of the West Coast merger and the successful integration which has essentially completed. I think the real story of this last quarter is our strong loan production, which was the result of our bankers' external focus on being -- on both their existing and prospective customers.
Our focus for 2014, we'll continue our high-quality loan growth, expanding our relationships with our customers to improve noninterest income opportunities and increased market share. And as always, we consider strategic and accretive acquisitions. We feel very positive about our future as we continue to move toward fulfillment of our mission to become the best Pacific Northwest regional community bank.
With that, this concludes our prepared comments this afternoon. And as a reminder, we have Clint Stein, Hadley Robbins, and Andy McDonald here to answer questions.
Thanks very much. We'll take your questions now.