Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Oregon employment department released job data for April Tuesday. As Amelia Templeton reports, unemployment in the state is still stuck at 10-and-a-half percent.

The local economy added about 4,000 jobs last month, seasonally adjusted. But that wasn't enough growth to bring the state unemployment rate down.

The most jobs were created in government. And about half of those were temporary census workers.

The private sector also added about 1000 jobs, the first gain in two years.

Dave White was at the unemployment office looking for work. He was laid off last year after 26 years with the same company. He's not convinced the economy is bouncing back.

Dave White: "You can look around. Thinks aren't so great. You can see all the closed small businesses, and everything. That's  what I tend to look and see how things are, and things don't look so good."

The state employment office says the private sector growth is a good sign. But its not expecting the unemployment rate to change much in the next few months.