Oregon Office of Economic Analysis

With employment data for all states released yesterday, we can now update Oregon’s relative ranking through March. The following graphs provide a quick update on previous posts which show how Oregon’s employment has fared relative to all other states over the past few years. For March, Oregon’s employment growth of the past year is 1.72%, which ranks 7th best nationally. In February, Oregon ranked 5th best. Given that Oregon lost 2,500 jobs in March, the state’s relative ranking was expected to decrease, however the change is minor and Oregon’s job growth remains among the best in the country. For comparison purposes, U.S. growth stands at 1.00% and Washington’s is 1.22% for March.

The second graph shows the employment gain for each state from their respective employment trough through March. For example, in Oregon employment reached its trough, or low point, for this business cycle in December 2009 so the growth shown in the graph below is for the job gains from December 2009 to March 2011. Each state reached its trough at a different point in time and the calculations take this into account. Oregon’s employment growth since December 2009 is 1.97% which ranks 11th best in the nation. The nation overall increased 1.15%. When this graph was previous published, based on data through January, Oregon ranked 15th best and given the large employment gain in February, Oregon’s ranking improved. Also noteworthy is the fact that back in January, four states had yet to reach a defined employment trough – that is they continued to lose jobs with no real, sustained improvement. With the new and updated data, all states have now shown some job growth.