Lincoln County’s estimated unemployment rate skyrocketed to a record 26.2 percent in April, the Oregon Employment Department announced Wednesday, in the agency’s first county-by-county look at how the coronavirus pandemic wiped out jobs across the state.
Lincoln County’s jobless rate was the highest in Oregon. Clatsop County’s rate was next at 24.4 percent. They were the only two counties in Oregon with rates higher than 20 percent.
The statewide rate was 14.8 percent.
Lincoln and Clatsop counties have a larger share of their employment in the leisure and hospitality industry than other Oregon counties, said Erik Knoder, a regional economist for the Oregon Employment Department based in Newport, and that industry was especially affected by COVID-19 restrictions that took effect in mid-March.
The state’s unemployment rate is an estimate based on a complex mathematical model and not strictly based on the number of people who file for unemployment claims, said Knoder. Actual unemployment claims in Lincoln County totaled 4,547 in mid-May; the estimated number of unemployed in April was 5,496.
“In theory it has nothing to do with unemployment claims, although they make up a part of the formula. They are just that – a reasonable estimate,” Knoder said Wednesday. “But the unemployment rate probably did increase by a factor of five” since March.
Lincoln County’s unemployment rate in March was 4.7 percent.
Every major industry lost jobs in April, Knoder said.
The agency estimated that private-sector employment fell by 3,880 jobs in April, and government employment slid by 110.
Leisure and hospitality shed 2,900 jobs due to a loss of 1,460 in the accommodations industry and a loss of 1,320 in food services and drinking places.
Trade, transportation, and utilities cut 290 jobs of which 200 were from retail trade. The other services industry; which includes hair salons, repair shops, and churches; lost 180 jobs. Education and health services cut 170.
Professional and business services, which includes temporary employment agencies, chopped 130 jobs. Local government cut 140 jobs.
April’s unemployment rate was nearly double that of the recession of 2008-10, Knoder said, when it reached a peak of 12.6 percent.
Other coastal counties were similarly hard hit. Tillamook County’s unemployment rate went from 4.1 to 18.4 percent. Coos County went from 4.9 to 18.8 percent.
Benton County’s rate was 10.2 percent; Lane County’s was 16.1 percent.