Oregon March Unemployment: Still Steady at 10.6%

The March job figures are out and are predictable but depressing nonetheless.  The unemployment rate is stubbornly fixed at 10.6% (up insignificantly from February's 10.5%).  But the jobs number is still in the red with another 400 lost on a seasonally adjusted basis even with the Census hiring spree. Yes this is still trending to zero, but it is about time to see some real and sustained job growth.  This is what we economists mean be a jobless recovery: many economic indicators are on the rise - GDP, consumer confidence and spending, manufacturing and service activity, productivity, capacity utilization - but the employment situation is stubbornly stuck.  This is to be expected to an extent, employment is always one of the last things to recover after a recession, but there is no great source of growth out there to predict a strong jobs recovery and this is what we are seeing.  So settle in for a tough 2010.