OLYMPIA, Wash.

Washington’s unemployment rate remained at 5.1% and the state created 16,800 jobs last month, officials said on Wednesday.

The job security department said August’s rate was the same as July’s rate and the job gains came even as health concerns persist amid the COVID-19 pandemic .

“But the uncertainty around the Delta variant is likely to lead to an uneven recovery in the labor market,” Paul Turek, the department’s economist, said in a written statement.

Private sector employment increased by 13,000 jobs and government employment increased by 3,800 jobs. Recreation and hospitality, professional and business services, and education and health services posted the largest gains, with manufacturing and government the two sectors posting declines.

Two different surveys are used to calculate unemployment figures and job losses and gains. The unemployment rate represents the percentage of the labor force that is unemployed and actively looking for work. People who stop looking for work are not counted. Estimates of job gains and losses are based on a US Bureau of Labor Statistics survey of businesses.

The national unemployment rate fell from 5.4% in July to 5.2% in August.

The latest figures released on Wednesday also include a broader unemployment measure released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This rate – called the U-6 rate – measures “the unemployed, the underemployed and those who are not looking but wanting a job”. The U-6 rate from Q3 2020 to Q2 2021 was 13.5% in Washington state and 11.9% nationally during the same period.