Jobless Rate Remains Steady in Oregon

In certain parts of Oregon, particular Crook County and Deschutes County, the unemployment rate did not seem to change within the span of a month and instead, the unemployment rate remained unchanged from the previous month. In another county of Oregon, Jefferson County, the unemployment rate did decline but only by a little bitch, showing that a whole lot of progress was not really made. The information on the unemployment rates for these particular areas was provided by the Oregon Employment Department earlier on in the week.

During the month of May, Deschutes County and Jefferson County both experience some job gains despite the lack of improvement for the unemployment rates. In fact, the jobs gains were actually larger than what was expected for both counties, which is a bit of positive news for the areas. During the month of May, the unemployment rate was at 8.4 percent, which is still a bit higher than the overall unemployment rate for the United States as a whole. For the entire nation, the unemployment rate is, on average, 8.2 percent.

For Crook County, the unemployment rate for the month of May was at a high of 13.5 percent, which is not much better than the previous month at all. In fact, during the month of April, the unemployment rate was at 13.4 percent, which shows that the unemployment rate actually increased a bit but was hardly changed either way. Although the unemployment rate in the county is still considered high, especially when compared to the nationwide unemployment average, it is still considerably lower than it was back in May of 2011, when the unemployment rate was at a high of 14.8 percent. During May of this year, Crook County managed to add about 130 jobs, which was less than what the county typically adds throughout these particular months. Most of the jobs that were created were available in the leisure and hospitality sector as well as the government sector. Other sectors that experience job gains were transportation, utilities and warehousing sectors. In the span of one year, from May of 2011 until May of 2012, approximately 2.4% more jobs are available in the Crook County.

In Deschutes County, the unemployment rate during May was at 11.1 percent and was not changed from the previous month of April. While it was unchanged between the span of one month, there have still been improvements, especially since the unemployment rate was at 12.5 percent back in May of 2011. Within the span of one month, between April and May, there were nearly 1,500 jobs added for the county. The number of jobs created was considerably higher than usual for the county, especially since the county typically adds less than half of that number of jobs during those particular months.