PORTLAND — How low can it go?
Oregon’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.8 percent in February, its lowest level in more than 20 years, according to figures released Tuesday by the state Employment Department.
The jobless rate has been steadily declining since reaching a peak of nearly 12 percent in the spring of 2009, a time when Oregon was crushed by the recession. The state labor force has grown by nearly 100,000 in the past two years, driven largely by people moving from California and elsewhere and finding work.
Oregon added 4,300 jobs last month, led by the construction industry, after a gain of more than 9,000 jobs in January. That has sent the jobless rate plummeting to a mark last seen in April 1995.
The U.S. unemployment rate for February was 4.9 percent.
“We’ve been somewhat above the U.S employment rate for many years, and now this is the first time Oregon’s rate has reached and fallen slightly below the U.S. rate,” said David Cooke, a state economist.