March 21, 2023 10:50 a.m.

In Oregon, nonfarm payroll employment declined by 100 jobs in February, following a gain of 9,600 jobs in January.

A release from the Oregon Employment Department said job losses in February were largest in manufacturing and financial activities which lost 1,300 jobs and 1,000 jobs respectively. Gains were largest in construction where 1,400 jobs were added, private educational service, which gained 1,000 jobs, and government which grew by 700 jobs.

State Employment Economist Gail Krumenaur said nondurable goods manufacturing experienced more job cuts than normal in January and February. Krumenaur said the industry employed 57,800 jobs in February, which was close to the its February total of the prior two years. Food manufacturing compromises about half of nondurable goods manufacturing employment and, at 27,800 jobs in February, was close to its February totals of each of the past 7 years. Meanwhile, durable goods manufacturing hasn’t gained much ground lately, as it has hovered close to 137,000 jobs during the past 8 months. Recent gains in machinery manufacturing have been offset by declines in computer and electronic product manufacturing.

OED said construction employment rose sharply in February, reaching another record high of 122,700. The industry added 7,500 jobs, or 6.5 percent, over the past 12 months. Since February 2022, all published components of construction are up between 3.8 percent and 9.3 percent. The component that grew the fastest was building equipment contractors, which added 3,000 jobs, or 9.3 percent in that time. Both components within construction of buildings grew close to 4 percent with residential building construction up by 800 jobs or 3.8 percent and nonresidential building construction up by 500 jobs or 4.3 percent.

Krumenauer said government employment rebounded to its pre-pandemic high of early 2020, as it rose to 302,119 jobs in February. Local government education rose to 193,100 jobs in February, which was 6,500 jobs above its year-ago figure, and is now nearly back to its February 2020 total of 141,900. Local government, excluding education slowly expanded over the past 8 months, employing 97,700 in February.

Oregon’s unemployment rate was 4.7 percent in February, little changed from 4.8 percent in January. Oregon’s unemployment rate averaged 4.8 percent over the past 6 months. In February, the U.S. employment rate rose to 3.6 percent from 3.4 percent in January.