Oregon’s unemployment rate held at 11.3% in October, holding at an eight-month low, according to the Oregon Employment Department.
The state has been hard hit by the recession, with unemployment rapidly surging past the national rate, which was 10.2% in October, but Oregon’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate appears to have peaked at 12.2% in May. The rate has fallen or held steady in four of the past five months.
“Oregon’s unemployment rate is starting to level off and stabilize, which is promising news,” said Gov. Ted Kulongoski.
The state continues to lose jobs in the construction and manufacturing sectors, but it is gaining jobs in the financial industry, as well as professional and business services. In total, Oregon lost 1,900 jobs in October on a seasonally adjusted basis.
The decline in the unemployment rate has partly come from discouraged workers leaving the labor market, rather than job creation. The state’s labor force shrank to 1.96 million workers in October, down from a high of two million in April.
“Since spring, both the number of Oregonians employed and unemployed has been declining, thus reducing the labor force,” according to the Employment Department jobs report. “The exact extent of contributing factors is unclear, but it is evident that Oregon’s labor force participation rate has declined through much of the year.”
The number of jobless workers was 210,325 in October.
“This economic period continues to remain uncertain,” Kulongoski said.
