School year’s start helps fuel Oregon job growth

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The start of the school year helped fuel Oregon’s job growth in September as more educators were hired.

The report released Tuesday shows most of the net gain of 7,185 jobs over August was in government, which added 3,300 jobs.

The majority of new government jobs were for local education.

The state Employment Department says professional and businesses services added 1,200 jobs.

There were job losses in construction, leisure and hospitality and in financial services.

For the year to date, Oregon’s job growth rate is 3.5 percent, compared to 1.7 percent nationally.

In September, Oregon’s unemployment rate was 5.5 percent, just a tick about August’s 5.4 percent rate.

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State Employment Dept. news release:

Oregon added 2,400 nonfarm payroll jobs in September, continuing a trend of strong job growth. September gains were largest in government, which added 3,300 jobs, with gains concentrated in local government education as the school year started. Professional and business services continued to expand rapidly, adding 1,200 jobs, while wholesale trade added 1,000 jobs. Three industries cut about 1,000 jobs for the month: construction ( 1,400 jobs), leisure and hospitality ( 1,200), and financial activities (-900). The August nonfarm payrolls were revised upward by 1,800 jobs to a new reading of a gain of 6,400 jobs.

Oregon’s over-the-year job growth rate of 3.5 percent was much faster than the U.S. rate of 1.7 percent. Oregon has added jobs faster than the nation since 2013. Oregon also had one of the fastest over-the-year job growth rates of any state; since February 2015 , Oregon has ranked among the top five states with the fastest job growth.

Over-the-year jobs gains were widespread among the major industries, with none declining. Six of these industries grew by 3 percent to 4 percent. And, three major industries grew much faster than that: construction (+7,100 jobs, or 8.6%); professional and business services (+16,500 jobs, or 7.2%); and other services (+3,300 jobs, or 5.4%). Meanwhile, only two industries did not surpass growth of 1 percent: manufacturing (+500 jobs, or 0.3%) and mining and logging (no change).

In September, Oregon’s unemployment rate was 5.5 percent, essentially unchanged from 5.4 percent in August. The unemployment rate was close to its year-ago figure of 5.7 percent in September 2015 . Oregon’s labor force rose to 2,075,000 in September–a gain of 95,000 over the last 12 months. Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate rose to 63.2 percent in September, from 61.2 percent in September 2015 .