PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon unemployment rate has been edging down ever so slightly, and new figures due out Tuesday could show whether that trend is growing stronger.
In January, Oregon’s unemployment rate was 10.4 percent. That was down from 11 percent in January 2010 and down from the peak number of 11.6 percent at the depth of the Great Recession in mid-2009.
Still, the rate has been declining so slowly that economists say the month-to-month changes aren’t significant statistically.
That’s an indication of how weak the recovery has been. It’s also an indication of how many people in the recession quit looking for work and weren’t even counted as jobless. Many of them now tell the government they’re back in the job search.
Figures due at 10 a.m. will cover February.
