January 19, 2023 10:50 a.m.

In Oregon, nonfarm payroll employment rose by 6,100 jobs in December, following a gain of 8,200 jobs in November.

A release from the Oregon Employment Department said the gains were largest in manufacturing, construction, and professional and business services. Those categories added 2,400, 1,300 and 1,100 jobs respectively. The largest decline in December was in the other services category, which cut 500 jobs

State Employment Economist Gail Krumenauer said Oregon’s private sector added 5,600 jobs in December, reaching an all-time high of 1,694,200. Kremenauer said this was 22,500 jobs or 1.3 percent above the pre-recession peak in February 2020.

OED said construction continued its rapid expansion in December. The industry added 10,200 jobs in 2022, for an annual growth rate of 9.1 percent. Gains were widespread throughout the industry, with all published components growing between 5.9 percent and 14.9 percent over that 12-month period. Building equipment contractors added 3,700 jobs, or 11.5 percent, while building finishing contractors added 2,200 jobs or 14.9 percent, growing at the fastest rate.

Krumenauer said leisure and hospitality is still substantially below its pre-pandemic peak. However, revised gains of 1,500 jobs in November, coupled with a gain of 600 in December, kept the industry on its recent upward trajectory. Over the past 12 months, it added 16,900 jobs, accounting for a quarter of Oregon’s private-sector job gains during that time.

Oregon’s unemployment rate rose to 4.5 percent in December, from 4.3 percent, as revised, in November. The unemployment rate increased 1.0 percentage point over the past five months from its recent low of 3.5 percent in May, June and July. OED said the last time Oregon’s unemployment rate was 4.5 percent or more was in September 2021, when it was 4.5 percent. In contrast, the U.S. unemployment rate remained below 4 percent during the last three months of 2022. It edged down from 3.6 percent in November to 3.5 percent in December.

Putting Oregon’s 4.5 percent December unemployment rate in a broader context: it has been relatively rare, historically, for Oregon’s unemployment rate to go below 4.5 percent. This occurred during the 14 months prior to December, when the rate averaged 3.9 percent. From 2017 to 2019, the rate also averaged 3.9 percent. However, prior to late 2016, Oregon’s rate never dropped below 4.5 percent in any month dating back 40 years – from 1976, when comparable records began, to October 2016.