More than one in five job vacancies in Washington in April were in the health-care industry, according to the newest job-vacancy report published by the Employment Security Department.

Department spokesperson Caitlin Cormier says the Spring 2008 Washington Job Vacancy Survey report found that there were more than 16,000 health-care job openings out of an estimated 74,700 unfilled jobs statewide.

Caitlin Cormier, spokesperson, comments

Among the health-care vacancies, 4,300 were for registered nurses. There also were a lot of openings for licensed practical and vocational nurses, nursing aides, orderlies and attendants.

Retail sales ranked second in the number of job openings, with 2,800 vacancies, followed by food preparers and servers.

Statewide, the number of job openings across all professions was about fifteen percent lower this spring than it was a year earlier.