SALEM (AP) — Oregon’s unemployment rate ticked upward to 12.2 percent in August, with state economists sticking by their prediction of a slow, jobless recovery in the near term.

The seasonally adjusted rate has been hovering around 12 percent for the past six months. The August rate was up over July’s 11.8 percent level — among the highest unemployment rates in the country. The U.S. employment rate rose from 9.4 percent in July to 9.7 percent in August.

In its monthly jobs report, the Oregon Employment Department said Oregon’s economy shed 6,600 jobs last month as the state continued to struggle with the deepest recession in decades.

In all, about 235,745 Oregonians were on the jobless rolls in August, compared with 126,604 a year ago at this time.

“Today’s employment report is further evidence that any early signs of economic recovery will likely be accompanied by some employment rate instability, requiring all levels of government to continue to act with prudence and caution,” Gov. Ted Kulongoski said.

David Cooke, an economist with the employment agency, said even though state and federal economists are seeing the beginnings of economic recovery, joblessness will remain high for some time.

“There will be a continued rise in the state and U.S. unemployment rate for the next few months,” Cooke said. “We are forecasting slow growth of payroll employment beginning in the second quarter of 2010.”

The state employment agency’s latest report said last month’s seasonally adjusted job losses came in four major industries: leisure and hospitality; local government employment; professional and business services; and educational and health services.

However, it said, the numbers contained a positive trend as well.

“The long-term slide in employment in both construction and manufacturing at least temporarily halted,” the agency said. “Both of these two major industries performed roughly in line with their normal seasonal pattern.”

John Mitchell, a Portland economist, said he believes factors such as an uptick in home sales indicate that Oregon’s overall economy has hit bottom and is slowly coming back up. At the same time, he said, businesses are likely to wait a while longer before adding jobs.

“We are just now going through the process of ending this recession,” Mitchell said.