![\"FILE](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/PQHRP22AO5BFTFW4XPCT6FE7N4.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOregon\u2019s unemployment rate has held steady at 5.2% for the first four months of 2026.<\/p>\n
And going back even further, the rate hasn\u2019t been more than a tenth of a percentage point higher or lower than that since it was 5.0% in March 2025.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
FILE \u2014 Manufacturing jobs have declined in the past year while hiring has grown in healthcare and social services. Nich Chen, works at ESS, Inc., in Wilsonville, in this Feb. 1, 2023 file photo. ESS manufactures iron flow batteries used for long-duration storage.<\/p>\n
Kristyna Wentz-Graff \/ OPB<\/p>\n
On top of that, the number of jobs in Oregon has held relatively steady for more than a year. The difference in the number of jobs in the state between March 2025 to April 2026 is 10,900 jobs, a reduction of 0.55%<\/p>\n
So why does Oregon\u2019s economy seem to be in a holding pattern?<\/p>\n
\u201c[The unemployment rate] has really just been moving sideways,\u201d said Oregon Employment Economist Gail Krumenauer. \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen any sort of seasonal change, and that does to us suggest some wait-and-see behavior because there\u2019s been some greater uncertainty around trade relations and other types of economic turbulence.\u201d<\/p>\n
National economists have referred to the nation being in a low-hire, low-fire environment<\/a>, where jobs are neither being created nor lost at a notable pace.<\/p>\n And the national unemployment rate has seen a similar trend since March 2025, though it has seen more notable fluctuations <\/a>and sits at a lower rate that of Oregon.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n While unusual, the state\u2019s flat unemployment rate is not unprecedented. Oregon Employment Department data<\/a> show another stretch with little change in recent history. The rate stayed around 10.6% for 14 months in 2009-10.<\/p>\n While the unchanging rate is unusual, Krumenauer sees another trend that interests her.<\/p>\n \u201cThe big story that has been remarkably the same for almost two years is that the growth we have is mostly in private healthcare and social assistance,\u201d she said. \u201cMost other sectors of the economy have lost jobs over the past year, and that\u2019s similar to what\u2019s happening nationally.\u201d<\/p>\n She points to the U.S.\u2019s April jobs report<\/a>, in which 115,000 jobs were created and 53,900 of those jobs were in private healthcare and social assistance.<\/p>\n In Oregon, the state added 500 jobs in April, while the healthcare and social assistance sector added 1,500 jobs.<\/p>\n Krumenauer said job growth in Oregon and nationwide is increasingly happening in a handful of sectors while others such as manufacturing are shrinking.<\/p>\n Zac Ziegler is a reporter with the KLCC newsroom. This story<\/a> comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.<\/p>\n