Lane County’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.4 percent in January. This is the lowest it’s been since the state started tracking it in 1990.
Regional economist Brian Rooney says, generally, below 5 percent means full employment.
Rooney: “There’s always some normal churn in the labor market where we’re going to have some unemployment. But once you start getting below 5 percent there aren’t a whole lot of mass layoffs and people having trouble, or taking a long time to find a new job.”
Rooney attributes the low rate partly to retirements. He says the most job growth is in private education and health services, professional and legal services and retail trade. He says construction has been strong in Lane County over the last year. Oregon’s statewide unemployment rate was 4-point-3 percent in January.
