Oregon’s unemployment rate has been playing limbo for the past several months and set another historic low in January of just 3.3%.

The Oregon Employment Department revised prior figures downward to 3.4% for the last three months of 2019, so this is the first time the state’s unemployment rate has been consistently below 4% since economists began using current methodology in 1976.

Transportation, warehousing and utilities work grew fastest in the past 12 months, expanding by 3.6%. Information jobs expanded by 3.5%, primarily due to growth in Oregon’s software sector.

Growth in construction work ground to a halt during 2019, though, while manufacturing shed 3,200 jobs amid the trade war with China.

A broader measure of Oregon unemployment, the U-6 or “underemployment” rate, is also at a historic low of 7.4%.

Oregon’s jobless rate has been in steady decline since May 2009, when unemployment was nearly 12%. That’s the longest stretch on record in the state.

However, the sudden outbreak of coronavirus in China – a key market and supplier for many Oregon companies – has thrown the state’s outlook in doubt. The emergence of coronavirus in Oregon and Washington have economists raising the possibility of a recession.

-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699

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