The Oregon Department of Employment reports that during the month of July, Oregon added 3,500 construction jobs, 700 business services jobs, and 500 manufacturing jobs. Construction employment has now reached 69,100, well above its low point of 64,000 in February. But as encouraging as those numbers may be, there were 4,000 more construction jobs in July of 2009 than today.
Overall employment in Oregon stands at 1,984,000 in both July of ’09 as well as ’10. During the past year, the number of jobless Oregonians dropped by over 11,000, while the number of those who found jobs grew by 10,789 thus keeping the balance sheet nearly the same. Hence the state’s unemployment rate stuck at around 10.5% for the past nine months. Continue reading »