Patrick Emerson PhD ,
OSU Economist
Oregon Economics Blog
Molly Young has a nice article in The Oregonian about the new Oregon jobs report. She focuses her attention in the unemployment rate that hasn’t budged much (the February rate is 8.4%) and the overall decline in the labor force. Go there for that discussion, she covers it well and it is interesting to think about the supply side of the market, but my attention is on the demand side.
On the demand side, however, Oregon added 6,800 jobs in February on a seasonally adjusted basis, 6,000 of those in the private sector. Additionally, they January number was revised up to 5,400 jobs. That is a very healthy pace of job gains, it remains to be seen if this can be sustained, but remember, Oregon has been one of the leaders in the national recovery, our economy was one of the fastest growing in 2012. So signs are good….or were until the sequester boondoggle. Alas, we’ll just have to wait and see how that plays out.
Still it is good to see signs of a sustained recovery.
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