Southern Oregon seeing growth in most job sectors despite recent layoffs

Medford, Ore. — Despite recent layoffs in the region, job and business experts say there is a bright spot. Overall, Southern Oregon’s economy looks like it’s bouncing back in a big way.

“I think everything in our economy is on the uptick right now,” said Ron Fox, Executive Director of Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development Incorporated (SOREDI), an organization focused on bringing new businesses to the Rogue Valley.

This, despite roughly 150 layoffs at Erickson Aviation on Thursday, the top management at Harry and David let go this week after 1-800-flowers’ acquisition of the company, and last month Brammo selling a portion of their business to Polaris and cutting jobs in the process.

Then there’s more than two dozen lay offs set to happen at Darigold in Medford at the end of this month.

“No one wants to be on the list,” said Fox.

However even so, Fox said the local economy is on the right track.

“We’re seeing growth in most of the sectors… Our job growth in the manufacturing sector has been substantial,” Fox said.

“Over the past four years local manufacturing increased employment by 20% which is really amazing. The trend has been up,” said Ainoura Oussenbec, a Workforce Analyst with the Oregon Employment Department.

Meantime, Fox said Southern Oregon is making strides in the tech industry as well.

“Among the smaller metropolitan areas across the U.S. there’s about 179 of them, our region ranks 6th in terms of the number of businesses in the high tech sector and the growth of our high tech sector,” said Fox.

According to Fox, the only area where Southern Oregon still trails significantly is residential home construction.

Still both Fox and Oussenbec agree despite recent layoffs at several local companies, the horizon looks bright.

“Looks like recover is finally coming to Southern Oregon,” said Oussenbec.

Fox said the job market is good right now with many open opportunities.

While the unemployment rate in Jackson and Josephine counties is still high, regional economists say added jobs are up in both counties.