Oregon’s Job Growth 16th Fastest Among the States

Oregon had the 16th fastest job growth among the states from January 2018 to January 2019. Adding 29,500 jobs for a growth rate of 1.5 percent, Oregon’s respectable job growth was slower than first ranked Nevada (+3.9%), and neighboring Washington (+2.5%) and Idaho (+2.4%). California ranked 17th with a growth rate of 1.4 percent. Oregon’s job growth rate last year was slightly slower than the overall national rate of 1.7 percent.

Job growth rankings by industry sector show that two sectors of Oregon’s economy added jobs fast enough to rank in the top 10 of states. Oregon’s government sector grew 1.6 percent over the last 12 months, just slightly faster than the private-sector growth rate of 1.5 percent. Government job growth was driven by gains in local government and state government. It was enough for Oregon to place third in government job growth behind first place Delaware and second place Utah.

Oregon’s manufacturing sector added jobs at a rate of 3.4 percent over the last year. That was fast enough to rank eighth among the states. Oregon’s manufacturing job growth over the last year was led by computer and electronic product manufacturing, machinery manufacturing, and primary metal manufacturing. The ambiguously named other services sector cut jobs at a rate of 0.3 percent in Oregon. This loss was mostly due to a reduction of jobs in repair and maintenance businesses. Thirteen other states lost jobs in other services, so Oregon ranked 38th among the states, despite the job losses.

Job figures for the information sector are not available for all states, so a fair ranking across all states is not available and the sector is not included in the graph. Oregon’s information sector cut jobs at a rate of 0.3 percent over the year. The job losses were in telecommunications and at newspaper, book, and directory publishers.

The most recent job growth rates by industry for Oregon are available on QualityInfo.org using the Current Employment Estimates (CES) tool.

This article was written by State Employment Economist Nick Beleiciks.