Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon’s unemployment rate remained level at 12.2 percent in June -- after May’s figures were revised down.
As Kristian Foden-Vencil reports, the numbers show federal and state stimulus money may be helping.

State employment economist, Art Ayre, says the number of non-farm jobs dropped by about 7000 in June. But, he says, the actual unemployment rate appears to be stabilizing around 12 percent.

Art Ayre: “We could be leveling off at this point. We have had three months of very little change, relative to prior month’s changes, in unemployment rate. The pace of job loss is a little bit slower now, certainly than it was in the early part of this year and late last year.”

Most industries did not follow their normal seasonal trends, with manufacturing, trade and business services all losing jobs in June.

In contrast, construction added significantly more jobs than usual -- a sign Ayre says, that stimulus money is putting people to work fixing roads and building bridges.