Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon's preliminary unemployment figures for last month were released Monday. Ryan Knutson reports.

The unemployment rate of 11.3 percent was unchanged from September's revised rate.

The strongest areas of Oregon's economy were professional and business services, while the weakest were manufacturing and construction.

Overall, 1900 jobs were lost in October. State Employment Economist Art Ayre says that's an improvement.

Art Ayre: "It's a loss; it is a substantial loss, but it is smaller than what we saw in September and smaller than the average for the March through September period."

Oregon now has the 7th worst unemployment rate in the nation. That's an improvement from earlier this year when it was the 2nd worst.

Nationally, unemployment has risen to 10.2 percent, the highest rate since 1983.