July 2021 Employment and Unemployment in Oregon’s Counties

In July 2021, all but one of Oregon’s 36 counties experienced over-the-month decreases in their unemployment rates. The unemployment rate in Lake County experienced no over-the-month change to its unemployment rate. Jackson and Multnomah counties saw the largest decrease over the month with a change of -0.5 percentage point.

Lincoln County had Oregon’s highest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in July at 7.2%. Other counties with some of the highest unemployment rates included Crook (7.0%), Curry (7.0%), Klamath (7.0%), and Grant (6.9%) counties.

Wheeler County registered the lowest unemployment rate for the month at 3.2%. Other counties with some of the lowest unemployment rates in July were Benton (4.1%), Malheur (4.3%), and Sherman (4.4%) counties. Fifteen counties had unemployment rates at or below the nationwide rate of 5.4%, and 12 counties had unemployment rates below the statewide rate of 5.2%.

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased in all six of Oregon’s broad regions between July 2020 and July 2021. Most areas still have room to recover from pandemic job losses; the state has now recovered 70% of jobs lost in March and April 2020. The largest job increases since July 2020 occurred on the Coast (6.2%). Southern Oregon (4.9%), the Willamette Valley (4.8%), and Central Oregon (4.6%) also experienced large over-the-year employment increases. Eastern Oregon and the Portland-5 regions added 3.6% and 3.5%, respectively.

Read the original press release here.