Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Oregon April Unemployment: 10.6%

The April unemployment figures are out for Oregon this morning and the news is better. Though the unemployment rate is unchanged at 10.6%, the state added 3,900 jobs.  The reason for the unemployment rate not dropping is the job seekers retuning to the labor force.

But there is some worrying news: manufacturing, bucking the national trend, actually lost 500 jobs. Also, given the big national job number from last week, 290,000 new jobs, I would have liked to see a better number from Oregon.  It might appear that Oregon is a laggard in the recovery, but I think it is far too soon to tell this yet and the robust growth in Asia should help us recover faster.  

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