Oregon (Un)Employment in August: Little New but Big Revisions

Oregon added 800 total nonfarm jobs above seasonal expectations in August, according to this morning's news release from the Employment Department. The modest gain follows the same trend of barely-there growth seen since April in Oregon. The only broad industries with significant movement over the month in August were professional and business services (+1,600 jobs) and construction (-1,600).

The statewide unemployment rate also changed little. At 9.6 percent in August, it was essentially unchanged from 9.5 percent in July.


While there was little new with this month's employment situation, the Employment Department posted a large revision to the initial July employment estimates released last month. The revised data change the initially-estimated small employment gain of 300 jobs for July into the largest over-the-month employment loss (-3,300 jobs) since September 2010. The downward revision in the July numbers was concentrated in government.

Get more information in the full employment situation news release, or at the Current Employment Statistics page at QualityInfo.

All numbers in this post are seasonally adjusted.