Washington State's Chief Economist has stated that it will be several years yet before employment once again reaches 2008 levels.  November of 2008 marked a high for the number of jobs in Pierce County when there were 376,840 people employed.  By February of 2010, employment had fallen to less than 350,000 due to more than 27,000 jobs being shed (-7.2%).  More than a year later, we had lost ground again dropping to just below 346,000, but have since regained almost 9,000 jobs as of October 2011.  Employment is currently at almost 355,000 jobs.