All of Oregon’s counties saw their unemployment rates drop last month, according to the Oregon Employment Department, but many still rest above the state and national unemployment rates.
Lincoln County still has the state’s highest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, at 17%.
Sixteen of the state’s 36 counties saw unemployment rates drop by 3 percentage points or more in June. Clatsop County saw the largest over-the-month decrease, with its unemployment rate dropping by more than 8%, but it still had one of the state’s highest unemployment rates – 15.2%, second only to Lincoln County.
Other counties with some of the highest rates include Crook and Curry, with rates of 13.5% and 13.4%, respectively.
In comparison with last June, non-farm-related jobs declined sharply this June throughout the state, but the largest job losses occurred on the coast, OED said.
Wheeler County, in north central Oregon, had the state’s lowest unemployment rate last month, at 5.7%.
The statewide and national unemployment rates are just more than 11%.
Before the pandemic, Oregon had reached a historic low unemployment rate — 3.7% in December 2019.