Oregon’s unemployment rate hit 5% in July, its highest level in nearly four years.
The jobless rate hasn’t topped that threshold since 2021, when the state was still recovering from the mass layoffs and furloughs of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The national unemployment rate in July was far below Oregon’s, at 4.2%, signaling that Oregon’s workforce is falling behind other states.
The summer has been especially brutal for the state’s labor market. Oregon lost 2,700 jobs last month, which followed a loss of 8,600 jobs in June.
Intel’s layoff of around 2,400 employees in recent weeks, the largest layoff in the state’s history, could be a big factor in the state’s job losses.
It’s the manufacturing industry, where Intel is a key employer, that has been hit the hardest since last July, said Gail Krumenauer, state employment economist. Since then, Oregon’s manufacturing industry has lost 9,400 workers — or 5% of its workforce.
Job losses also have mounted over the past year in the construction and financial services industries. Both have seen unemployment rates grow to about 4% over the past year.
“We’re seeing many of the same large trends we’ve been talking about,” Krumenauer said. “It’s just that the overall picture looks weaker than originally reported.”
The construction industry did rebound slightly in July, however, adding nearly 3,000 workers.Two industries that have seen the most growth have been health care, which grew by around 3% last month, and the hospitality industry, which grew by 1% as hotels and restaurants staffed up.
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