Another 122 Lincoln County workers filed unemployment claims for the week ending May 30, the lowest level since coronavirus-related business closures were ordered in mid-March.
Still, the continued claims – there were an average of 30 a month before the pandemic hit – helped raise the total to 4,855 for Lincoln County.
Last week the Oregon Employment Department estimated the county’s unemployment rate to be 26.2 percent in April, the highest county-level rate in Oregon. The statewide rate is 14.8 percent.
The number of jobless claims in Lincoln County has been on a steady decline since more than 1,000 filed in early April.
The employment agency said in an analysis this week that counties with large accommodation and food service sectors and tourism destinations were the hardest hit. The number of initial claims in Lincoln County represented nearly 24 percent of the labor force and 23 percent of the labor force in Clatsop County. Deschutes County had the highest share of unemployment insurance claims among Oregon’s metropolitan counties, accounting for nearly 19 percent of the Bend-area labor force, the agency said.
