Seattle and surrounding areas prove to be a tough force to blow over in this recession. With the some of the worlds most enduring tech companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, manufacturing companies such as Boeing, and increasing agriculture exports, Washington state in general has advantages over many other states trying to survive. Still, it is going to take years for the state to fully recover.

A report has been released from IHS Global Insight stating the Seattle metro is expected to add 16,000 professional and business services jobs. That’s about 7,000 new jobs in the private sector and 7,400 positions opening up in transportation and trade. Washington state continues to draw skilled labors to its tech, medical, and engineering industries.

But Washington state isn’t out of hot water yet. In 2012, entire job growth is estimated to only grow 1.5 percent for the Seattle metro area, recovering only 49 percent of the jobs that were lost during this mass recession. When metro areas make up roughly 85 percent of the nation’s jobs and 90 percent of the entire GDP, this means there’s a long road ahead.

But we can be thankful that we’re not suffering the same fates as other states. Seattle continues to hold its standing as the twelfth largest export economy among 300 metro areas. The Bellevue, Seattle, and Tacoma areas are responsible for almost 60 percent of the entire state’s employment. This means that these metro areas are predicted to come out of the recession sooner than other regions (estimated 2015). Just another reason to be thankful you live on this side of the Cascade curtain.