May 20, 2020 3:10 a.m.
Public Health measures implemented in March to combat the rapid spread of COVID-19 are having an unprecedented economic impact in Oregon and around the United States.
A release from the Oregon Employment Department said April provides the first full month of measuring the initial impact on businesses and the unemployed.
Senior Economist Analyst Anna Johnson said Tuesday’s data shows that 266,000 jobs were lost in the first two months of the pandemic. That means the unemployment rate in the state is now at 14.2 percent. Johnson said “while these numbers make for shocking historical records, they cannot totally capture the economic trauma so many Oregonian are experiencing at this time”.
The release said Oregon’s unemployment rate rose from a near-record low of 3.5 percent, as revised in March, to the new level in April. The release said this is the highest rate and the largest over-the-month increase in the history of comparable economic data, going back to 1976. The number of unemployed Oregonians rose by nearly 228,000 to just over 300,000 in April. The U.S. unemployment rate rose form 4.4 percent in March to 14.7 percent last month.
In April, one out of every eight jobs in Oregon was idled or lost. Leisure and hospitality more than half of its jobs, nearly 55 percent. Other industries that were the hardest hit included health care and social assistance, retail trade, professional and business services, government, the other services category, construction and manufacturing. No sector in Oregon gained jobs in April.