Linn County's jobless numbers mirror those of rest of state
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The state of Oregon lost a total of 25,500 jobs in December, largely in the leisure and hospitality sector.
Other sectors with job losses included private education, government, wholesale trade, manufacturing, and construction.
But retail, transportation, warehousing and utilities, health care, courier services, and professional and business services added a total of 12,300 jobs, mitigating some of the larger losses in retail and hospitality.
Full-service restaurants account for the largest portion of the losses, with 17,600 jobs cut in December due to the impacts of the COVID-19 restrictions.
The overall unemployment rate for the state was 6.4%, up from 6% in November. The uptick in unemployment comes after a precipitous decline in unemployment from the 15% unemployment level seen in the early days of the pandemic.
“December’s job losses reflect the devastation COVID-19 continues to inflict on the lives and livelihoods of Oregonians. Ten months into the pandemic, Oregon has regained just 37% of the jobs lost in this recession,” said Gail Krumenauer, State Employment Economist with the Oregon Employment Department.
While the latest report doesn’t include regional data, November’s report showed Linn County falling closely in line with trends across the state: a 6% seasonally adjusted unemployment rate. That was an improvement from October, but a far cry from November 2020, when the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.7% for the county and 3.4% for the entire state.
Regional Economist Patrick O’Connor said, “Similar to the state, Linn County experienced a record drop in March and April of 2020. It regained a significant number of those jobs in the late spring and early summer, but that job growth slowed beginning in September and employment has been steady, but not growing in recent months.”
Linn County has fared better than the state on average, however. Oregon’s non-farm employment is down 8.9% from Dec. 2019 to Dec. 2020, compared to Linn County dropping 6.2% from Nov. 2019 to Nov. 2020.
Linn County’s rebound has gone much better than the states, with 54% of the jobs lost in spring recovered, compared to Oregon’s 37%.The county’s December unemployment rate was 5.9%, compared to Oregon’s 6.4%.
Linn County gained jobs in transportation, utilities, warehousing, retail, and health care. It lost jobs in leisure and hospitality, as well as manufacturing and government.
