Although Lincoln County is seeing a small rebound in its dominant hospitality industry, the county still has the highest unemployment rate in Oregon, the Oregon Employment Department said Tuesday.
Lincoln County’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 15.2 percent in July, down from 17.3 percent in June. Last July the county’s rate was 4.4 percent, the agency said.
Clatsop County had the second-highest unemployment rate in Oregon at 12.9 percent. Oregon’s statewide unemployment rate was 10.4 percent; the national rate is 10.2.
Seasonally adjusted nonfarm payroll employment in Lincoln County increased by just 90 jobs in July to 15,800 total. Seasonally adjusted figures compare expected changes with actual changes.
ODE regional economist Erik Knoder said Lincoln County’s businesses added 570 jobs in July but government employment – mostly public schools — fell by 200. The leisure and hospitality sector added 540 jobs and retail trade grew by 30 jobs.
Year-to-year comparisons show that almost every major industry lost jobs, Knoder reported. Leisure and hospitality accounted for most of the drop with a loss of 1,530 jobs, down 28.6 percent from the year before.
Leisure and hospitality accounted for more than 17,000 jobs within the five-county northwest Oregon region in 2019, or 16 percent of all nonfarm employment. This sector includes full-service and fast food restaurants, bars, taverns, and other food service businesses, hotels, motels, campgrounds and other accommodations, as well as arts, entertainment, and recreation businesses.
According to a report last month, when COVID-19 hit Oregon, leisure employment fell by 61 percent (9,840 jobs) within one month’s time in the five-county region. But in the past two months, the industry has added back nearly 4,700 jobs in the region, but is still about 40 percent below last June’s employment level.
The report said Lincoln County’s leisure industry employment reached an all-time high in 2019, peaking in July with an estimated 5,370 jobs. By this January, leisure had dropped by 1,170 jobs, similar to winters past. After a slight uptick in February and March, leisure jobs fell by 2,850 jobs — 65 percent — once COVID-19 restrictions hit the county.
The industry has rebounded some, adding back an estimated 1,790 jobs by June, but is still down 37 percent from year-ago levels. Food services and drinking places have been hit the hardest, down 53 percent since last June, while the lodging sector is down by 19 percent.
Leisure and hospitality jobs made up 26 percent of the county’s nonfarm employment in 2019 with an estimated 4,760 jobs annually. As of June 2020, that share had dropped to 20 percent, and was down 37 percent since June 2019.
