GRANTS PASS, Ore. — A career company called Zippia put out a study that shows Grants Pass ranks the fourth worst job market for a metropolitan city.
The study surveyed 386 different metro areas, ranking them based on wage change, unemployment rate change and current unemployment rates.
The study found that Grants Pass has an unemployment rate of 5.2 percent, compared to the states average rate of 4.1 percent.
It also found that the average annual salary people are paid in Grants Pass is among the lowest of the group at 39,020 dollars.
Some experts say that although the numbers are factually correct, the study goes wrong by considering Grants Pass to be a metropolitan state.
“You’re comparing Grants Pass, which barely meets the threshold for a metropolitan statistical area in terms of population size against, New York, Los Angeles, Portland Boston, Houston so not quite an apples to apples comparison,” Guy Tauer, Regional economist for Oregon Employment Department, said.
Tauer also notes that the numbers don’t take in account for housing costs. While wages are relatively low, housing costs aren’t that expensive either.
“Certainly the wages tend to be a little bit lower out in smaller areas, cost of living tends to be a little bit lower as well,” Tauer said. “When you’re coming up with these ranked indexes, they don’t look at anything like cost of living numbers, they just looks at a number like a wage number.”
Grants Pass isn’t the only city that ranked on this survey, Medford ranked 21st.
Despite this ranking, the Oregon Employment Department says job growth is up this year in Jackson and Josephine county.
Other experts from Confident Staffing and Employee Leasing, say they’re seeing a strong job market right now. In fact, because it’s so strong, employees are able to bargain for higher wages.
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.