Oregon’s Job Growth 8th Fastest Among the States

Oregon had the eighth fastest job growth among the states from January 2016 to January 2017. Adding 43,200 jobs for a growth rate of 2.4 percent, Oregon’s solid job growth was much slower than first ranked Idaho (+4.0%) and second ranked Nevada (+3.5%). Oregon’s job growth rate was nestled between Washington (2.8%) and California (2.0%) growth rates.

Most states added jobs over the last year. States that had job losses are heavily dependent on the energy sector: Wyoming (-3.2%), Alaska (-2.7%), North Dakota (-0.7%), Oklahoma (-0.6%), West Virginia (-0.6%), Louisiana (-0.4%), and Kansas (-0.2%). These states have seen large job losses in their mining sectors over the last year.

Oregon’s growth rate last year was faster than the U.S. rate of 1.6 percent. That’s not unusual; Oregon has been adding jobs faster than the U.S. since 2013.

Construction Sector Ranked 2^nd Fastest

Looking at job growth rankings by industry sector shows that many areas of Oregon’s economy were adding jobs at a fast pace. Growth was very strong in Oregon’s mining, logging, and construction sector; in financial activities; and in other services.

The number of jobs grew by 10.3 percent in Oregon’s mining, logging, and construction sector, which ranked second among the states behind Idaho’s growth rate of 11.0 percent. Oregon’s growth was entirely due to construction jobs because mining and logging lost jobs. These sectors are combined in this analysis to allow for comparisons across all states. Not every state has published data for either mining and logging or construction, but all states have data for the combined sectors. Alaska ranked last, losing 13.3 percent of the jobs in this sector during the last 12 months.

Learn more about other fastest growing industries in the article "Oregon’s Job Growth 8th Fastest Among the States" written by State Employment Economist Nick Beleiciks.