Douglas County may be starting to join the slow recovery from the recession.

Private-sector employment in the county has grown by 430 jobs in the past year, according to the Oregon Employment Department. It’s a small percentage of the 34,240 jobs in the county, and private-sector growth has been partially offset by the loss of 270 public-sector jobs. Still, the uptick in jobs has been noticeable to employment agencies.

The president of Umpqua Training and Employment, Susan Buell, said people are finding jobs sooner. Until recently, job seekers typically took three to five months to get hired. Now, most prospective employees are finding work in two or three months, she said.

The nonprofit agency, which recently moved to the Umpqua Business Center in Roseburg, helps job seekers obtain GED diplomas and job training. She said more business owners are willing to take a chance on expanding their payrolls.

“What I don’t know — and this is the million-dollar question — is if these jobs will last into winter and beyond,” Buell said.

The lion’s share of the increase in private-sector jobs has been in the category economists call “professional and business services,” a wide range of jobs that include clerical, bookkeeping and engineering positions.

There were 360 more of those jobs last month than in May 2011. A big chunk of those were temporary positions, according to Brian Rooney, state regional labor economist.

The owner of the Douglas County franchise of Express Employment Professionals, Willis Cook, said some of the employment growth he has seen recently are seasonal jobs related to tourism. Still, he said he thinks an increase in manufacturing and office jobs will continue.

“The worst year was 2009. Each year’s been a little better than the year before,” Cook said. “I think it’ll continue to grow.”

Lori Bullock, branch manager of FlexForce, said she’s seen a steady increase across the board in temporary job openings since January. She said she believes the increase in temporary hires signals that the worst of the economic slump is over, but that employers are being cautious.

“Employers aren’t necessarily confident enough to bring their employees back full time,” Bullock said.

Donna Arnold, branch manager for Cardinal Services Inc., which provides human resources services for companies, said her clients’ job openings for permanent positions are up about 25 percent over last year. She said about 45 percent of the agency’s clients are small businesses, with 10 or fewer employees. Mom-and-pop operations have been hiring while larger businesses have been downsizing, she said.

An increase in retail and office jobs are signs of an improving economy, Arnold said.

“I still think it’s going to be awhile before we see any great increase, but it’s much better than last year. It was really slow last year,” she said.

The number of new jobs created in the past year is a fraction of the 2,740 jobs lost between 2008 and 2009 when the Great Recession hit Douglas County.

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the recession technically ended June 2009, but some say it hasn’t seemed that way in Douglas County.

“Up to last month, Douglas County had been basically kind of bouncing along the bottom,” Rooney said. “Douglas County’s having a slow recovery. Everybody’s having a slow recovery. Douglas County’s having a bit slower recovery.”

At 11.8 percent, the county’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for May was worse than the state’s 8.4 percent or the nation’s 8.2 percent. Still, it’s better than last May, when the county’s jobless rate was 13.2 percent.

Wood-products manufacturing gained 80 jobs in the past year, increasing the number of jobs in the industry to 2,710 and reversing a long trend. Rooney said the increase is a signal that the wood-products industry is beginning to stabilize.

Still, the recent increase hasn’t brought the number employed in the industry up to the level of 2010, when 2,800 people had jobs in wood-products manufacturing. Job numbers in the industry had steadily declined since 2003, when it employed 4,530 people. Losses sped up just before and during the Great Recession. The industry lost around 400 jobs each year from 2007 to 2009, reaching its lowest point — 2,630 — in 2011.

Some wood-products manufacturers say they are filling summer jobs but do not anticipate any significant changes in permanent positions in the near future.

“We’re not increasing our overall production at all,” said Brad Hatley, general manager of CD Lumber Co. in Riddle.

The county’s job numbers have been dragged down by cuts in public employment, particularly in education.

Roseburg School District Superintendent Larry Parsons said the district has cut 75 positions, including 50 teaching positions, since 2008.

“I think it’s fair to say that public schools got hit really hard over the last three years. We’ve had pretty systematic and systemic reductions,” Parsons said.

Parsons said he believes the district’s employment rate has reached its low point, but said he thinks the turnaround will be relatively slow.

“We’re not expecting to be back to our 2008 levels for three or four years,” Parsons said.

• You can reach reporter Carisa Cegavske at 541-957-4213 or ccegavske@nrtoday.com.

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Christine Cook of San Mateo left her job as a spa director to care for her husband, and after he died last year, she wasn’t sure what to do next. She wasn’t ready for full-time work but needed something to put a dent in her day and bank account. So when she read about Gigwalk, a San Francisco startup that uses crowdsourcing to fill odd jobs via an iPhone application, she signed up.

Since August, the New Zealand native has earned about $5,500 doing hundreds of jobs. They included taking 360-degree photos of restaurant interiors and uploading them to the Bing search engine ($8 apiece), photographing restaurant menus ($4 each), testing Wi-Fi/3G access at various businesses ($3 each), surveying parking facilities ($10), watching a political debate on TV and providing feedback ($25), visiting home appliance stores to check availability and delivery times ($35 per visit), and taking photos of premium juice displays, counting products, recording prices and interviewing four customers ($125).

“This is very part time,” says Cook. “It would not be realistic to do it eight hours a day. The ebb and flow is such that you can’t necessarily rely on it.” But it has given her the chance to visit new neighborhoods, meet interesting people, and work when and where she pleases.

Gigwalk is among a fast-growing number of employment agencies using new technologies to connect businesses or individuals who need information or a task done quickly with people who have time on their hands. It comes at a time when fewer people have full-time jobs, or any job.

Other companies in this nascent industry include TaskRabbit, Quri and Exec – all based in the Bay Area – and Field Agent, based in Fayetteville, Ark.

The agencies post jobs (or let employers post them directly) on a smart phone or website.

In some cases, the worker must have an iPhone to complete the task. (Only Exec has an Android app although others are working on one.)

Jobs are assigned in various ways. Some go to workers based on past performance, others to whoever is closest to the job site or whoever grabs it first.

Some agencies require workers to enable a GPS tracking device on their iPhone so they know who is where. Some let workers sign up to have a message sent to their phone when a job is available nearby.

The worker is typically paid via PayPal, often within a few days. Workers are independent contractors, and if their pay exceeds $600 a year, the agency will send them and the Internal Revenue Service a Form 1099.

“If it’s under $600, you have to self-report it to the government,” says Ariel Seidman, chief executive of Gigwalk.

Market research

Some firms, such as Quri and Field Agent, focus on market research and intelligence gathering for businesses, primarily consumer product companies. These companies might want to make sure their product or promotion is displayed properly in stores, survey customers or check out the competition. In this case the employer and worker don’t know each other’s identities.

Justin Behar, chief executive of Quri, calls these “micro-work opportunities.”

Julie Kumar of American Canyon has done about 200 jobs for Field Agent in the past eight months even though she’s employed full time as a hospital manager. Most involve taking photos of products or displays and checking prices in Walmart, Target or Costco. The average one pays $5 to $6 per job. “I check my phone, and if I’m in a store or driving by or need to go there anyway, I’ll grab it,” she says.

Person to person

TaskRabbit and Exec focus on person-to-person jobs such as deliveries, assembling Ikea furniture, event staffing or domestic chores. In this case the employer and worker know each other’s identities. Both firms interview prospective workers and do a background check before they can sign up.

Cynthia De Acha of Menlo Park, who is between jobs as a corporate event planner, has done 50 to 60 TaskRabbit jobs since February.

“Once I had to pick up fresh New England lobster from a place near SFO and deliver them to someone in Menlo Park,” she says. Another time she made close to $120 staffing a four-hour venture capital event.

Her most puzzling job: “Pick up an ordinary-looking door handle at Stanford Business School and deliver it to a residence in Woodside,” where it appeared a movie was being made.

Gigwalk has a mix of corporate and person-to-person jobs.

During a four-month period, Gigwalkers used Microsoft’s Photosynth app and their iPhone to take panoramic pictures of more than 70,000 restaurants and bars in eight U.S. cities. The photos were used in Bing Maps and Bing Local results.

“Gigwalk’s network delivers high-quality results, often within 24 hours, and that’s hard to beat,” a Microsoft spokeswoman says.

Fernando Navales – a stage actor, part-time office worker and avid Gigwalker – took many photos for Bing last fall. “That was a really high time,” he says. Since then it’s harder to get gigs. “A lot more people are keen to it now. The gigs go pretty quickly.”

Keeping low profile

Workers gathering market research say they don’t usually identify themselves unless asked and might or might not get permission to take photos, depending on the circumstance.

Cook says she rarely attracts attention. “Being a middle-aged woman, I’m (perceived) as harmless,” she says.

Gigwalk’s code of honor says workers should get permission before shooting photos on private property. Other firms are mum on the subject.

Behar says, “There are a lot of shopping applications that use bar code scanners” read with a smart phone. “It’s a frequent behavior for a person to be using their iPhone in a store.”

These agencies do not charge workers to sign up. Most charge employers a fee for each task performed. TaskRabbit charges job posters 12 to 20 percent of what they pay the worker.

Most jobs pay a flat rate per job, although Exec pays a flat rate of $25 per hour, plus expenses, minus a fee paid to Exec.

At TaskRabbit, workers post how much they want to be paid and the employer chooses which one to hire.

New-breed employment agencies

Here’s a look at some agencies that use crowdsourcing to fill odd jobs. Others include Zaarly, Peggsit, AirRun and Fetchmob. The latter two are more errand-delivery oriented.

Gigwalk

Headquarters: San Francisco

Platform: iPhone, iPad

Operates in: United States; Toronto; Vancouver, British Columbia

Typical jobs: Market research, canvassing, tech installation, photography

Average pay: $10 to $25, occasionally $100 to $180

Payment: Employer via credit card; worker via PayPal

Odd job: Take pictures of college grads in their caps and gowns at NYU

Field Agent

Headquarters: Fayetteville, Ark.

Platform: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch. Some jobs require a camera-equipped device.

Operates in: United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Norway

Typical gigs: Take photos, check prices, survey customers in stores

Average pay: $4.50 to $20 via PayPal

Odd job: Agents had to buy cakes from different bakeries, take them home, weigh them, strip off the icing and weigh them again.

TaskRabbit

Headquarters: San Francisco

Platform: Website, iPhone app

Operates in: Austin, Texas; Boston; Chicago; Los Angeles; Orange County; New York City; Portland, Ore.; San Antonio; Seattle; Bay Area

Typical tasks: Delivery, cleaning, laundry, assembling Ikea furniture

Average pay: $40

Payment: Job poster via credit card; worker via PayPal or check.

Odd job: Prank an office mate. One wanted everything in co-worker’s office wrapped in cellophane while he was away. Another wanted someone to pose as an incompetent replacement for a colleague who was retiring.

Quri

Headquarters: San Francisco

Platform: iPhone, iPad. App is called EasyShift

Operates: Nationwide

Typical jobs: Visit store, do one to six tasks related to a product or promotion (e.g. check price or photograph)

Average pay: $2 to $6

Payment: Client via standard invoicing, worker via PayPal.

Exec

Headquarters: San Francisco

Platform: iPhone, Android, website ( www.iamexec.com)

Operates in: San Francisco

Typical jobs: Errands, data entry

Pay: Flat rate of $25 per hour plus expenses minus fee to Exec

Payment: Job poster via credit card; worker online or by check.

Odd job: Make art for a girlfriend for Valentine’s Day

Kathleen Pender is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Net Worth runs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. E-mail: kpender@sfchronicle.com Blogging: sfgate.com/pender Twitter: @kathpender

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