CERF Blog

The January United States jobs report contains mixed results that, to us, provide hints of a recovery to come. More on the recovery later. The bad news from the jobs report first: long term unemployed persons, (those who have been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer), climbed by about 500,000 to just under 6.5 million… Read more

The Oregon Employment Department’s Labor Market Information System released December 2009 jobs and employment data for Oregon’s counties today. In most respects, Central Oregon’s labor market is not significantly changed from November, and very close to our forecast. The Bend MSA (Deschutes County) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate fell from 14.2 percent in November to 14 percent… Read more

The December California jobs report, out today, shows that the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate held steady from November at 12.4 percent. The year-on-year job declines subsided from November’s -4.2 percent to -3.9 percent in December. The annualized month-on-month job decline, which is very volatile, worsened from -1.5 percent in November to -3.2 percent in December. Almost two-thirds… Read more

Today’s Oregon jobs report for December shows mixed results in the State’s job market.  The OES’s Labor Market Information System provided the December estimates for the state this morning and will provide them for Oregon’s counties on Friday morning.  The State’s Year-over-year job losses are improving a bit, from a loss of about five percent… Read more

This morning’s December employment situation report showed certain signs of improvement that do indicate a positive trend. However, the fourth quarter of 2009 ended down, consistent with our forecast. The November jobs number was revised to show a month-on-month gain of jobs. The December jobs number was down 0.8 percent from November and down three… Read more

California’s jobs report, released Friday the 16th, showed that the California economy is still bumping along the bottom of a serious recession.  The various indicators, for the month of September, show only slight improvements over August.  There was a slight improvement in the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate from 12.3 percent to 12.2 percent.  There was… Read more

The current economic downturn is a serious one, especially for coastal California counties. Los Angeles County also experienced a serious and prolonged recession in the early 1990s. The early 1990s United States economy experienced a cyclical economic downturn while Los Angeles County also experienced a major downsizing of its aerospace and defense industries. The contraction of… Read more

The Employment Development Department’s July 2009 Ventura County jobs report, released Friday, is depressing. From the household survey we see that the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate rose from June’s 10.3 percent to 10.9 percent in July. However, Ventura County’s July seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate usually increases in the summer, due to school closures. Another way… Read more