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Shops usually staff up for the hibernate holidays, the Super Bowl of the retail world. But this year, in the face of a protracted recession, Nordstrom has been running a tight ship.

The Seattle company said it has limited its hiring to perfect, year-round positions and has taken “very not many temps.”

“Due to the relating to housekeeping downturn and the resulting lower sales, we needed fewer people,” said spokeswoman Brooke White. “We also paucity our regular employees to force as much as possible during these herculean times.”

Similar caution at other companies is weighing heavily without ceasing the state jobs picture. The condition Employment Security Department said Tuesday that about 4,000 retail jobs were lost in November, contributing to a slope of 11,700 in total jobs.

The state’s unemployment rate rose slightly — to 6.4 percent in November from 6.3 in October. It’s still lower than the national form, which stood at 6.7 percent.

In the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett area, the unemployment rate rose to 5.4 percent last month from 5.3 percent in October.

The retail sector was stand by only to construction in terms of job losses — an ill omen at a time when employers in that sector normally blow up.

“It’s a real sign of the worries that consumers have over the state of the economy,” aforesaid Jan Teague, president of the Washington Retail Association.

Mary Ayala, chief economist of the Employment Security Department, aforesaid Washington is doing “slightly better” than the rest of the country, thanks to its full proportion of service jobs compared with the manufacturing sector, which has been battered nationwide.

More layoffs coming

But recent layoff announcements at companies like trade maker Paccar and Washington Mutual still shelter’t made it to the statistics, and employers are readying for a downturn.

“We’re seeing employers acting much in addition hesitantly before adding staff,” said Kerry Kiley, regional operations overseer of staffing company Adecco since Western Washington and Northern California.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008528750_jobless170.html?syndication=rss