Portland Jobs Continue to Decline

As the state unemployment rate continued to increase, more Oregon and Portland jobs were lost last month.

During August, Oregon saw its unemployment rate increase from 11.8 percent to 12.2 percent, which is higher than the national unemployment rate of 9.7 percent. This was a change in trend, as Oregon had seen a continually decreasing unemployment rate from May through July.

The state had a total non-farm employment of 1,624,900 workers during August, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 1,631,500 workers during July and a 5.8 percent decrease from last year.

Although the August unemployment rate for the Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton area has not yet been released, the area continued to lose jobs during the month. The area had a total non-farm unemployment of 971,600 workers during August, down from 976,600 workers during July and a 5.9 percent decrease from last year.

Some industries added jobs on a month-to-month basis during August. The construction industry added 400 jobs, the manufacturing industry added 200 jobs and the leisure and hospitality industry added 100 jobs. The mining and logging industry employed 1,400 workers during August, the same as during July,

Only one industry managed to add jobs when compared to last year. The education and heatlh services industry employed 129,200 workers during August, down from 129,400 workers during July, but a .7 percent increase from last year.

The construction industry took the biggest hit when compared to last year. That industry employed 52,200 workers during August, up from 51,800 workers during July, but an 18.3 percent decrease from last year.

Other industries that saw an over-the-year decrease in jobs include:

• manufacturing by 10.1 percent
• trade, transportation and utilities by 5.6 percent
• information by 7.6 percent
• financial activities by 4.8 percent
• professional and business services by 9.2 percent
• leisure and hospitality by 5.4 percent
• other services by 4 percent
• government by .8 percent

Posted by: jcheesman on 9/21/2009 at 9:54 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Tags: portland jobs