Another 186 workers in Lincoln County filed unemployment claims last week, the Oregon Employment Department said Thursday, bringing the total to 4,547 since the start of coronavirus-related closures March 21.
It was the lowest number of claims since state-mandated business closures in March, but still five times the county’s normal number of new weekly jobless claims.
Statewide, the number of new jobless claims climbed last week for the first time since March, underscoring that the economic toll of the coronavirus outbreak is far from over. The state fielded nearly 16,000 new jobless claims, according to new state data out Thursday. That brings the total number of benefits applications during the coronavirus outbreak to nearly 412,000 – more than 1 in 5 Oregon workers.
Earlier this week, the agency released the first statewide unemployment rate – 14.2 percent for April after it had been at a near-record low of 3.5 percent in March.
County-level unemployment numbers won’t be released until Wednesday. But given Lincoln County’s heavy reliance on tourism, it is expected to be more than 20 percent.
Anna Johnson, senior economic analyst with the agency, said businesses in the leisure and hospitality category took the brunt of the impact of pandemic-induced closures, losing more than half of its jobs in one month.