Oregon's job growth rate has hit its fastest pace in eight years, according to the state Employment Department.
Oregon is adding jobs at a faster pace than the rest of the country, growing at 2.6 percent compared to the national average of 1.7 percent.
"Oregon's payroll employment was up 6,100 jobs in April, following an even larger gain of 8,900 as revised in March," said Oregon Employment Department economist David Cooke.
"So those two months add up to 15,000 jobs added over a two month period. That's the fastest job rate growth we've seen in a two month period going all the way back to 2005."
There is one fly in the ointment. Despite such fast growth, Oregon's unemployment rate remains at 6.9 percent, because a large number of baby boomers are retiring.
Oregon is also a little slower to return to pre-recession employment levels -- that's because it lost a larger share of jobs and was slower to add them back when the economy began to turn around.
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