Passenger traffic at Portland International Airport fell nearly 20 percent last month reflecting the state's relatively high unemployment rate and business malaise.

The airport said February traffic declined 19.5 percent. Domestic travel dropped 18.6 percent while international traffic dropped more than 38 percent.

Oregon's unemployment rate stood at 10.8 percent in February, one of the highest rates in the nation.

Meanwhile at Sea-Tac Airport, January traffic dropped 5.8 percent. February figures are unavailable.

Washington's unemployment rate, announced today, is 8.4 percent.

Should you be wondering about the state of technical education these days in the South Sound, then get thee to Clover Park Technical College on Thursday.

The school will inaugurate a “Creative Living Event” to showcase the work of several school departments. The event has been in the works for several years, said Shawn Jennison, college relations coordinator, earlier today.

The gathering is scheduled from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the school’s McGavick Student Center, Building 23, in Lakewood at 4500 Steilacoom Blvd. S.W.

It’s free and open to the public, but Jennison said he’d especially like to see representatives from local businesses – who can gauge what the school is doing (and perhaps even make a few job offers) in several areas, including graphics and media design, retail marketing, manufacturing technology, aviation training and radio broadcasting.

Some 70 student-staffed displays are being planned by 15 programs, Jennison said. Students from the residential construction program have built an environmentally friendly shed, complete with a rooftop garden; the automotive program has pedal cars; the floral program will show new arrangements; and the culinary program will be offering food.

“This is a look at what technical education is all about in the 21st century,” Jennison said.

An auction will be held to help raise funds. Call 253-589-5800 or visit www.cptc.edu for more information.

Federal Way's Weyerhaeuser Co. announced plans today to close two more lumber mills, one in Oregon and the other in Oklahoma.

The company is shuttering the mills in Dallas, Ore. and Wright City, Okla. to cut production to match demand for lumber.

The closures will affect 307 workers, the company said.

The closure continues a trend that began in 2007 with the lumber giant trimming production capacity because of the housing downturn.

Since the first of this year, Weyerhaeuser has closed 10 wood products production facilities in the U.S. and Canada. Four of those were softwood lumber mills.

Investment firm Goldman Sachs today predicted Boeing commercial aircraft deliveries will fall this year substantially below Boeing's predictions.

The firm predicted Boeing will deliver 406 airliners in 2009. That's a big drop from Boeing's own prediction of 480-to-485 aircraft from its Puget Sound plants in Everett and Renton.

The number of deliveries will fall even more in 2010, Goldman Sachs said. It predicted 320 planes will roll off the production lines next year.

Boeing delivered 375 aircraft in 2008, but that figure was diminished because of a two-month-long Machinists Union strike that halted production. The company took about a month to ramp up production to former rates when the strike ended.

The investment firm blamed its lower prediction on the slowing economy that is keeping both business and leisure travelers at home this year.

Boeing has built and delivered 71 aircraft in 2009's first two months, a rate of 426 a year.

The declining economy took a toll on Pierce County jobs in February raising the unemployment rate to 9.5 percent, the highest in 22 years.

Statewide figures, adjusted for seasonal variations, (local numbers are unadjusted) showed a similar trend. Washington's unemployment rate reached 8.4 percent last month, the highest statewide since 1985. That's up .6 percentage points from January.

The statewide figure surpassed the national average, 8.1 percent, for the second month in a row.

Unemployment rates ranged from 14.8 percent in north central Washington's Ferry County to just 5.0 percent in Southeast Washington's Whitman County. King County was below the state average with 8 percent unemployment as was Thurston with 7.7 percent. Snohomish County unemployment, however, was worse than Pierce County's with a 9.9 percent rate.

The state's Tacoma regional economist, Paul Turek, thinks the coming months will yield even higher rates in the Tacoma area until the federal stimulus takes hold and local businesses start adding workers again early next year.

"I've revised my thinking lately," said Turek. "I was saying that I thought that unemployment here would peak between 9 and 10 percent. Now I think the figure will be somewhere between 10 and 11 percent."

If Turek is correct, that peak figure will still be substantially less than the 13 percent unemployment Pierce County recorded in December of 1982.

Washington initially lagged the rest of the country in feeling the recession's cold hands, but now the effects are being strongly felt here, said the state's Employment Security Department.

At this time last year, declines in the construction and durable goods industries were buffered by steady or growing employment in services industries, said the state.

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There’s nothing April foolish about it – not when it comes to safety in the construction workplace.

Electrical hazards. The workings of a cement pump truck. Protection against falls.

The state Department of Labor & Industries announced Monday that the second annual Construction Safety Day will be held beginning at 7:30 a.m. on April 1 – with demonstrations, seminars, exhibits, lunch and a prize drawing – at the Puyallup Fairgrounds ShowPlex.

Registration for participants costs $50; exhibitors will pay $200 for space.

Presentations will include a focus for supervisors as well as workers, and seminars will be conducted in English and Spanish - with the main subjects being the aforementioned electrical and fall-related hazards, and a look at cement pumps.

For more information, visit www.wagovconf.org/constsafetyday.htm.