The latest round of QCEW data was just released by the Employment Department and it confirms the recent good news in the Salem labor market (see the monthly reports by regional economist Pat O’Connor). Job growth has picked up nicely in the state capitol and the local private sector is now adding jobs at a strong rate based on recent history. Today’s job growth rates match those seen during the peak of the housing boom and you have to go back to the early 1990s to see higher, sustained rates.
With that being said, the region is still digging out from the Great Recession and is not back to pre-recession levels of jobs yet. This brings us to the Bonus Graph of the Week which shows that the private sector in the state capitol has regained a little more than half of their recessionary losses, while the local public sector* is beginning to stabilize (year-over-year changes just slightly negative in 2013).
*Just a reminder that this includes city, county and state government for both education (K-12, community college) and non-education workers.
Mark McMullen
Josh Lehner
Oregon Office of Economic Analysis 
[…] while it has picked up strongly in Oregon’s — particularly Bend and Medford, although Salem has joined the party as well. Seattle has pulled away from Portland’s growth path in the past year — and has […]
By: Graph of the Week: Northwest Employment | Oregon Office of Economic Analysis on February 4, 2014
at 10:18 AM
[…] However, “today, the opposite is true of areas outside each state’s largest metro. Growth has slowed in Washington’s medium sized metros and rural areas while it has picked up strongly in Oregon’s — particularly Bend and Medford, although Salem has joined the party as well.” […]
By: A jobs struggle in much of the Northwest | Jon Talton | Seattle Times on February 5, 2014
at 10:51 AM
[…] largely remains within the other metropolitan areas of the state, namely Bend and Medford but also Salem as well. Rural Oregon, while seeing some job growth, remains further below pre-recession levels than […]
By: Update: Job Polarization in 2013 | Oregon Office of Economic Analysis on April 2, 2014
at 10:09 AM