South Coast Economy in Summary

Below are this month’s South Coast indicators with January 2024 data. You can also view them by following this QualityInfo link.

South Coast Economy

Coos County employment grew by 290 from January 2023 to January 2024, while Curry County lost 150 jobs over that time. Coos County added jobs in several industries, including professional services, government, and health care, with declines in trade and manufacturing. Curry didn’t add many jobs in any sector, and losses were concentrated in trade, transportation, and utilities, and mining, logging, and construction. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in January was 4.6% for Coos and 4.7% for Curry.

You can find the latest South Coast Employment Press Releases that dive deeper into industry specific employment details here:

South Coast Employment in January

Special Topic: Job Vacancies in 2023

The special graph this month looks at the newest data release from our quarterly job vacancy survey to businesses. The most recent quarter completes the annual look at 2023, and we now have nine years of data on Oregon’s regions to look back on.

In 2023 Southwestern Oregon and the state both saw declines in the number of vacancies and level of difficulty filling open jobs in comparison to 2022. However, even this reduced level was higher than any year of the survey before 2021.

Likely what is happening is that there is some loosening of the labor market as we rebalance post-COVID, but that competition for workers is still elevated, particularly in certain industries and positions. In the annual data, the occupations with the highest number of difficult-to-fill vacancies included truck drivers, construction laborers, personal care aides, and nurses.

Good Labor Market Reads on Quality Info