Oregon's unemployed continue to search for a silver lining

Unemployed Oregonians will likely finish the year much the same as they began, mired in high unemployment, showered with promises, but still searching for any signs of light at the end of a very dark tunnel.  

While the state of Oregon posted welcome employment gains of 16,200 new jobs in the past year, job seekers in four metropolitan counties find themselves chasing 2,400 fewer jobs than at this time a year ago. 

Even so, the employment outlook in the Portland metropolitan region improved slightly last month.  Non-farm employment rose by 600 jobs in both Clackamas and Washington counties in November, while 1,600 jobs were added in Multnomah County. 

Most of the recent gains were retail and general merchandising jobs, largely offsetting seasonal declines in construction jobs last month, with 300 workers losing their jobs in Clackamas County, 400 more in Multnomah County, and 600 jobs lost in Washington County.

Based on the latest employment estimates released this week by state workforce analysts, national, state and county unemployment figures will likely end the year frightfully high and virtually unchanged. 

Labor estimates provided by WorkSource Oregon confirmed that unemployment rates have stubbornly held since January at 9.8 percent nationally, 10.6 percent statewide, and 9.2 percent in Washington County.  But neighboring Clackamas and Multnomah counties (10.3 percent) have also remained nearly unchanged in the past 11 months, while both Yamhill (11.1 percent) and Columbia counties (12.4 percent) continue to hover well above the statewide average.

Elsewhere in the state, Gilliam County reported the lowest unemployment rate, with only 6.7 percent of the 960 workers in that sparsely populated county in north central Oregon unable to find work last month.  

But Oregon’s worst unemployment continues to plague Crook (19.2 percent) and Harney (16.2 percent) counties in the central portions of our state.

In total, nearly 210,000 Oregonians were unemployed last month, with as many as 8,000 due to lose their unemployment insurance at the end of the month, after exhausting their 99-week safety net of extended benefits allowed by the federal government.

For more complete information about the current labor market in Oregon, check out WorkSource Oregon'sQuality Information web site.  You can also find an updated comparison of the five counties in the Metropolitan region by looking at WEA's Tri-County Economic and Demographic Indicators, and the Prosperity and Poverty Index.