August was a positive month for hiring in the Rogue Valley

SOUTHERN OREGON, —The latest employment numbers are out for August. A regional economist tells us it was a positive month for most industry sectors in southern Oregon.

Employment in Jackson County rose 1,280 jobs over the month. Local education added 650 jobs, making up about half of the increase. Over in Josephine County, employment increased by 140 jobs. Private education and health services had the largest gains there.

“It’s a busy time of the month for construction, leisure, and hospitality, just all sorts of activities, the economy is doing really well this summer and we didn’t have a lot of smoke as a lot of years so businesses curtailed in years past were pretty much able to run at full operations,” said Guy Tauer, Regional Economist for the Oregon Employment Department.

Tauer says we’re a little closer to regaining the jobs lost from the pandemic. But Jackson County is still down 2.6% Josephine County remains at around 1% from that time.