Oregon's Per Capita Personal Income Increased in 2020

Preliminary estimates from the Bureau of Economic Analysis' March 2021 News Release show Oregon’s per capita personal income (PCPI)--a measure of total income in the state from net earnings, transfer receipts, and dividends, interest, and rent, divided by the state's population--increased by 6.7% over-the-year in 2020 to $56,765. National PCPI increased by 5.8% to $59,729 during the same period. Large over-the-year increases in PCPI were driven by large increases in personal current transfer receipts, primarily through the $1.1 trillion in national CARES Act government relief payments.

As of 2020, Oregon’s PCPI relative to the nation increased to 95.0% of U.S. PCPI. Slightly larger over-the-year increases in transfer receipts (+37.3% for Oregon vs +36.6% for the U.S.) and net earnings (+0.7% vs. +0.3%) and a smaller over-the-year decrease in dividends, interest, and rent (-0.8% vs. -1.1%) all contributed to Oregon’s relative increase in PCPI.

Oregon's PCPI ranks 23rd in the nation. Connecticut has the nation's highest PCPI at $79,771, or 134% of national PCPI. Mississippi ranks last among the states at $41,745, or 70% of national PCPI.

The CARES Act and Claimants on the Benefits Cliff in Oregon

The CARES Act signed into law in March created new programs to expand Unemployment Insurance coverage during the pandemic. Two of these programs -- Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), primarily for the self-employed, and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) 13-week benefit extension -- are currently scheduled to expire on December 26, 2020. While most PEUC benefits recipients could roll into the existing Extended Benefits program, those receiving PUA benefits have no other unemployment benefit options when that program ends. 

While negotiations are underway to extend or replace CARES Act programs into 2021, many are wondering how many Oregonians could be impacted by the loss or interruption of these benefits. We estimate that there will be 72,000 people receiving benefits from the Oregon Employment Department under these programs as of December 26. That’s about 3.4% of the entire state’s workforce when the pandemic began. 

Women are slightly more likely to be affected by the loss or interruption of these benefits, as well as workers ages 65 and older. People facing the potential loss of this financial support in Josephine, Curry, Coos, Lincoln, and Jackson counties are expected to be the hardest hit by share of overall labor force. 

More information about the characteristics of unemployment benefit claimants is available at https://www.qualityinfo.org/covid-19.

Initial Claims and Additional Unemployment Benefits in Oregon

During the week of April 12 to April 18, the Oregon Employment Department received 36,700 initial claims for unemployment benefits. Since public health measures began the week starting March 15, Oregon has received about 333,700 initial claims for unemployment insurance.

Initial Claims
The Employment Department has detailed information for 31,700 of the initial claims processed during the week of April 12 to April 18. The greatest number of initial claims continued to come from the leisure and hospitality sector (8,000), which includes hotels and restaurants. This reflects ongoing impacts of public health and safety measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the week of March 15 to March 21, there have been about 60,800 initial claims filed from leisure and hospitality.

Other sectors with the largest initial claims totals for the past five weeks include health care and social assistance (30,900) and retail trade (24,300). Every sector of the economy has seen increased claims activity though. Initial claims totaled 16,500 in professional and business services, and 18,200 in manufacturing since the week of March 15 to March 21.

Multnomah (6,800), Washington (4,000), and Lane (2,900) counties had the largest number of claims during the week of April 12 to April 18. These three counties have consistently had the largest number of initial claims in recent weeks. More initial claims data by industry and area can be found on the QualityInfo.org COVID-19 page.

Helping Oregonians
The Employment Department continues processing initial and ongoing unemployment benefits claims at a record pace, resulting in $119 million in benefits paid to Oregonians during the week of April 12 to April 18. The agency continues expanding capacity for taking claims, with 520 employees now dedicated to taking unemployment claims, and additional contact center facility planning underway.

Employment Department efforts also continue toward launching the Pandemic UnemploymentAssistance (PUA) program. Once open, the PUA program will provide the self-employed, contract workers, and gig workers not already eligible, along with those not usually eligible due to too few hours or earnings, and those who were going to start work but could not, with benefits never before available. Programming, testing, and staff training for the PUA program are in progress. Upon successful testing, the Employment Department expects to open the program for applications by the end of April.

Additional information, program updates, and metrics related to the Employment Department’s ongoing response to the unprecedented need for unemployment benefits can be found on the interactive dashboard of the agency’s COVID-19 page.

Read the full press release here.

Self-Employed Workers in Oregon

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was signed into law March 27, 2020. The CARES Act expands unemployment insurance benefits to cover more workers that are self-employed. These workers would not normally qualify for unemployment insurance benefits. While the Oregon Employment Department does not have information on which self-employed workers are seeking unemployment insurance benefits, the following information from the American Community Survey (2018, five-year estimates) provides figures for self-employed workers in Oregon.

226,000 people were self-employed in 2018, or 12 percent of all Oregon workers.

This includes those who had incorporated their businesses and those who had not. Of all the self-employed, 145,000, or about six out of 10, were unincorporated; the remaining 81,000 were incorporated. People who are self-employed typically incorporate their businesses in order to receive traditional benefits of the corporate structure, including limited liability, tax considerations, and enhanced opportunity to raise capital through the sale of stocks and bonds.

Self-employed workers are found in many different occupations

In 2018, unincorporated self-employment rates were highest for workers in service occupations (10.6 percent); natural resource, construction, and maintenance occupations (10.0 percent); and management, business, science and arts occupations (7.8 percent). Self-employment rates had a somewhat different pattern for incorporated business owners than for the unincorporated self-employed. Among the incorporated self-employed, business ownership rates were highest for management, business, science and arts occupations (5.8 percent), and for natural resources, construction and maintenance occupations (4.9 percent).

207,000 Oregon households had self-employment income

Nearly 207,000 Oregon households, or 13 percent, had self-employment income, which totaled more than $6.9 billion in 2018. Self-employment’s $6.9 billion in household income represented about 5.4 percent of Oregon’s household income total.

Read Regional Economist Dallas Fridley's full article here.