Archive
Subscribe
Weather
 |
|
 |
Yamhill
County slowing
its rate of job losses |
Jobs have been lost, but county is faring better than metro area |
By Gunnar Olson, Newberg
Graphic reporter
E-mail Gunnar at golson@eaglenewspapers.com
|
Yamhill County continues to lose jobs, but not at the rate of the Portland
metropolitan area, of which the Oregon Employment Department considers the county to be a
part.
In the year that has passed from September 2002 to this September,
Yamhill County has seen a loss of about 430 jobs, a 1.6 percent drop, according to
statistics released from the Salem Career Center.
“But it’s not as severe in general (as) the Portland area as a
whole,” said Amy Vander Vliet, a regional economist of the Portland metropolitan area
for the OED.
As a whole the Portland area has lost, in the same time period, 2.1 percent
of its jobs, or about 19,300 positions.
The job level in Yamhill County is still below the level it was at before the
national recession began at the end of 2000. Vander Vliet said the recession actually
began earlier in Oregon, in November of 2000.
In September 2000 the county had 27,270 jobs. In the three years that passed
the county saw a decline of 4.6 percent in jobs, or 26,010 in September 2003.
Again, the Portland metropolitan area was hit much harder. The Portland area
lost 5.9 percent, or 57,800 jobs, from 2000 to 2003.
“Yamhill isn’t hurting as badly as the metro area,” she said,
adding that the Portland metropolitan area might not be the best yard stick for the
county, considering how poorly it is doing.
Portland has been hit harder, Vander Vliet said, because it has a heavier
reliance on manufacturing.
“Yamhill doesn’t have the concentration of high tech or
transportation equipment manufacturing,” Vander Vliet said.
Nevertheless, Yamhill County has a strong manufacturing presence, with about
21 percent of the county work force employed in manufacturing, according to the Salem
Career Center, compared to the state average of 13 percent.
And most of the jobs lost in Yamhill County came from manufacturing,
according to Mary Wright, an economist for Region 3, of which Yamhill County is a part,
with the Salem Career Center.
When manufacturing jobs are cut, Vander Vliet said, there’s a ripple
effect throughout the community of lost jobs.
“They’ve been smaller ripples,” in Yamhill County, Vander Vliet
said.
She predicted the job market in Yamhill County would brighten and has seen
stabilization in the past few months (when compared to the same months the year before).
But the timetable for a rebound depends on outside forces. Vander Vliet said
the county’s economy is dependent on the metro’s economy, which is dependent on
the state’s, which is dependent on the nation’s.
According to two economists with the Federal Reserve Bank, Erica Groshen and
Simon Potter, jobs lost in the latest national recession will not be gained back. Unlike
the layoffs of the 1970s and 1980s, the jobs will not be available again once business
picks up. They say the layoffs of the 1990s were structural, and more often than not
permanent.
A “bright spot” in Yamhill County’s job market, according to
Wright, is staying presence of private education and health services institutes, such as
George Fox University and Providence Newberg Hospital. Private education and health
services make up 20 percent of the jobs in Yamhill County, which is higher than the
state’s average of 13 percent.
People are always interested in gaining education, Wright said, and people
will never stop getting sick. |
|
From Nov. 8,
2003, Newberg Graphic
Click Here to Subscribe |
|
|
|
 |
|
