Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 3900 jobs in December

MEDFORD, Ore.- Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 3900 jobs last month.

The employment department said in a release that the rise of jobs in December follows a heavy loss of 5,900 jobs in November. December saw the most job gains in health care and social assistance, construction and, of course, retail trade. Construction jobs were at a record high last month with over 123,000 jobs, 500 of which were added for residential building.

Guy Tauer of the Oregon Employment Department says even though the pace at which jobs being added in Oregon has declined since Covid, the unemployment numbers are going in the right direction.

“These are still historically low unemployment rates for the state,” Tauer said, “we’re not quite at that historically low level that we saw just before the Covid pandemic, but we’re bouncing along the bottom of some of the lowest rates we’ve seen, and that’s true for the Rogue Valley as well”.

Oregon’s unemployment rate matched the country at 3.7% in December. While the number of jobs increased, December saw losses in financial activities and wholesale trade jobs.

Tauer said the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis forecasts about 14,700 jobs to be added in the state over the course of 2024, mostly in construction, leisure and hospitality, professional and business services and health care.