Oregon’s Unemployment Rate Increases For First Time Since April 2020

PORTLAND, Ore. – For the first time since April 2020, Oregon’s unemployment rate has increased.

The Oregon Employment Department says it jumped from 3.5 percent in July to 3.7 percent in August.

The U.S. unemployment rate was exactly the same.

Here’s more from the state:

In Oregon, nonfarm payroll employment grew by 9,300 in August, following an upwardly revised gain of 13,000 jobs in July. Monthly gains in August were largest in government (+3,800 jobs), leisure and hospitality (+1,900), construction (+1,400), professional and business services (+1,000), and manufacturing (+900). Other services (-800 jobs) and financial activities (-700) were the only major industries that shed more than 500 jobs.

With the rapid gains in total nonfarm payroll jobs in July and August, Oregon reached a record employment total of 1,974,700 jobs in August, which was 2,500 jobs above the pre-pandemic peak reached in February 2020. The private sector has also regained all of the jobs it lost during the pandemic recession.

Over the past 12 months, total nonfarm payroll employment grew by 74,800 jobs, or 3.9%. The following industries are powering the recovery, as each added more than 6,000 jobs while expanding at a faster rate than total nonfarm: leisure and hospitality (+18,500 jobs, or 9.9%), construction (+9,600 jobs, or 8.7%), manufacturing (+9,900 jobs, or 5.3%), and professional and business services (+11,700 jobs, or 4.7%).

Local government strayed from its usual seasonal pattern as local schools experienced fewer summer job reductions than normal, adding jobs in both July and August. This trend followed the first six months of the year, when local government employment averaged nearly 12,000 fewer jobs than in 2019, prior to the recession. But with fewer short-term job reductions in July and August of this year, local government education employed a total of 108,600 in August, which was 2,500 above its level in August 2019.