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Monday, December 14, 2009

Unemployment Rate Steady in November

Oregon’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 11.1 percent in November from the revised October figure of 11.2 percent. This was its lowest since the rate was 10.7 percent in February, and was down from the high of 12.2 percent in May. Oregon’s unemployment rate was 7.8 percent in November 2008.

One of the reasons that Oregon's unemployment rate has gone down over the past few months is that people are leaving the labor force. The specific causes of why Oregonians are leaving the labor force and exact counts are not known. Likely reasons include more people going to school rather than looking for a job, spouses stopping to look for a job outside the house, a growing number of discouraged workers, and more people deciding to retire as their confidence in the value of their retirement savings has improved.

In November, four major industries posted seasonally adjusted job losses of 900 or more:government (-1,700 jobs), construction (-1,400), financial activities (-900), and other services(-900). None of the other major industries posted changes of more than 700.

Read our most recent press release for more information.

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