April Employment and Unemployment in Oregon’s Counties

COVID-19 Impact
April seasonally adjusted unemployment rates are not available for Oregon counties due to processing delays caused by large increases in unemployment. Not seasonally adjusted unemployment rates are being used for this news release. They reflect April’s increase in unemployment related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for April will be available on Qualityinfo.org or by request at a later date. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes.

April Employment and Unemployment
In April 2020, all of Oregon’s 36 counties experienced over-the-month increases in their unemployment rates. Eighteen of Oregon’s 36 counties experienced over-the-month unemployment rate increases of 10 percentage points or more. Lincoln County experienced the largest over-the-month increase at 21.5 percentage points. Counties with the smallest percentage point changes in their unemployment rates since March 2020 include Wheeler (+2.5%), Morrow (+3.7%), and Harney (+4.3%).

In April 2020, Lincoln County registered the highest unemployment rate for the month at 26.2 percent. Other counties with some of the highest unemployment rates in April were Clatsop (24.4%), Union (19.3%), and Coos (18.8%).

Wheeler County had Oregon’s lowest not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate at 5.8 percent. Other counties with some of the lowest unemployment rates in April include Morrow County (8.1%), Malheur (8.3%), and Lake (9.7%). Eighteen counties had unemployment rates below the national unadjusted rate of 14.4 percent. Nineteen counties also had unemployment rates at or below the statewide unadjusted rate of 14.8 percent.

Total nonfarm payroll employment declined sharply in all six of Oregon’s broad regions between April 2019 and April 2020. The largest job losses occurred in the Coast region (-19.7%) and Central Oregon (-14.7%). The Willamette Valley region (-12.9%), Southern Oregon (-12.3%), Eastern Oregon (-10.3%), and the Portland area (-9.7%) also experienced large over-the-year employment losses.

Next News Releases
The Oregon Employment Department will release statewide unemployment rate and industry employment data for May 2020 on Tuesday, June 16, 2020. The May 2020 county and metropolitan area unemployment rates will be released on Tuesday, June 23, 2020.

Read the original press release here.