Oregon is seeing numerous indicators that the state has finally recovered from the economic body blows delivered by COVID-19, starting in March 2020.
The state unemployment rate nudged up to 3.7% in August, in lockstep with the national average, as both rates moved up 0.2% from the July rate of 3.5%. That appears to have ended a long, steady improvement in the unemployment rate from its historic high in spring 2020 to its sub-4% level now, very close to Oregon鈥檚 historic low.
The leveling off comes at the same time that employers added more than 9,000 jobs to payrolls, and the state has fully recovered the number of jobs lost during the pandemic.
鈥淲ith the rapid gains in total nonfarm payroll jobs in July and August, Oregon reached a record employment total of 1,974,700 jobs in August, which was 2,500 jobs above the pre-pandemic peak reached in February 2020,鈥� the Employment Department said in a statement released Wednesday.
But while the raw numbers have bounced back, the job picture varies across different sectors of the economy, said Gail Krumenauer, an economist with the department. Some have roared past where they were 鈥� like construction and manufacturing. Others are still below 2020 levels.
鈥淭he most notable is leisure and hospitality, which is still about 12,000 jobs below its February 2020 employment level,鈥� Krumenauer said.
In another sign that Oregon has emerged from the pandemic, some of the extra help the Oregon Employment Department has been relying on since 2020 is drying up. State officials revealed Wednesday that 200 temporary staffers are leaving at the end of this month, after helping the department slog through a huge volume of jobless claims filed during the pandemic.
Acting director David Gerstenfeld said there is still work for those temp workers to do 鈥� but not the money to pay them.
鈥淯nfortunately, our federal funding levels are not sufficient and have significantly declined,鈥� Gerstenfeld said. 鈥淲hile there鈥檚 an ongoing body of work, we鈥檙e not able to extend these limited duration positions any further.鈥�
Gerstenfeld said he鈥檚 hoping to avoid any disruptions or backsliding on processing unemployment claims or other services that Oregonians expect from the agency. He said the agency has gotten 鈥渧ery adept鈥� at prioritizing the most important services to limit disruptions. But something will give.
鈥淭here will be an impact,鈥� Gerstenfeld said, suggesting it would mostly be on projects that are less visible to the public.
鈥淪o we anticipate there might be some small impacts to customer service.鈥�
However, Gerstenfeld said the agency should still meet its responsiveness targets of 鈥渁nswering 90% of calls within five minutes鈥� and responding to online inquiries within a week.
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