Union County jobless rate holds steady at 11 percen

Union County isn’t enjoying the big drop in unemployment that usually comes with summer, according to numbers released last week by the Oregon Employment Department.

Traditionally in summer the unemployment rate in the county falls. But this year, there was virtually no change between June and July, according to the Oregon Employment Department.

The county registered an 11 percent, non-seasonally adjusted jobless rate, a number identical to the month before, and also the highest for any July since the Oregon Employment Department started keeping records in 1962.

Union County’s recreational vehicle and wood products industries have been hard hit in the current nationwide recession. Between June and July, the local manufacturing sector shed another 20 jobs, bringing net losses for the year to 160.

“We haven’t had any kind of ongoing job recovery yet, though there are signs in the nation the freefall is over,” Yohannan said.

In January, Union County’s unemployment rate was 14.5 percent. It declined slightly every month through June, when it stopped at 11 percent.

Also in Union County between June and July this year, federal, state and local government lost 400 jobs. Yohannan said the number, though larger than normal, isn’t as frightening as it might first appear.

He said a large drop in government jobs is expected for that time of year because the government sectors include workers in the area school system and at Eastern Oregon University.

In Wallowa County in July, the unemployment rate was 9.4 percent, down slightly from June’s 9.8 percent.

Wallowa County’s unemployment rate in January stood at 15.4 percent.

Oregon’s non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for July came in at 11.7 percent. Across the nation, it was 9.7 percent.