Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon's unemployment rate was essentially unchanged in December -- at about 11 percent.

As Kristian Foden-Vencil reports, the figure tracks with what economists have been saying: that the economy has hit bottom -- with some signs that jobs may be coming back.

At 11 percent, Oregon's unemployment rate is one percent higher than the national average -- that's the smallest difference since the recession started.

Still, 11 percent is high. To put it into perspective, if all the people collecting unemployment benefits were being paid by a business -- instead of the state -- that business would be among the top five in Oregon.

Employment Department spokesman, Tom Fuller, says the rate has been hovering around 11 percent for four months now, which means the economy has bottomed out -- he's just not sure what the recovery is going to look like.

Tom Fuller; "The good news is that we have fewer initial claims for unemployment. In December of last year, it dropped 50 percent from the year before. But the bad news is that there's a record number of people actually collecting benefits. So that's a huge bubble of folks who around the end of March are going to exhaust benefits, about 12,000 of them."

There's little talk of extending benefits for those people again -- either at the state or federal level.

Fuller thinks that as people lose benefits, they'll likely start accepting lower-paying jobs.

But there are a couple of bright spots  in today's report.

First, the manufacturing sector cut 1800 less jobs than it usually would at this time of year. That means durable goods are more in demand.

And second, the trade and transportation sector added 1600 jobs more than expected.

Out at the Tualatin office of WorkSource Oregon, Don Moeller sits at a computer looking for just one job. But he's not happy.

Don Moeller: "I was a trail lawyer for 20 years and they have referred me to an appropriate job which was as a sidewalk sign-waver. That's an insult to anyone's intelligence to go out there an wave a sign or do a job."

Moeller, who is 65, says for a while he worked at a career center in Newberg, where he interviewed people about how they found jobs.

Don Moeller:  "For the most part, they found them by contacts with friends or relatives. They didn't respond to classified ads or job notices. Basically the way you get it is having a face-to-face contact with someone or a walk-in."

He says he's been doing all the right things, but with no luck so far.