Oregon saw a decline in nonfarm payroll employment during July. The state lost 4,100 jobs after a modest gain of 1,300 in June. The Oregon Employment Department report highlights specific areas where these losses occurred.
Professional and business services reported the largest reduction with 1,800 fewer jobs. Other sectors followed this trend as leisure and hospitality lost 900 jobs and the government sector shed 700. These figures arrive as the state manages a total of 118,301 unemployed individuals against a workforce of over 2.1 million.
While some sectors struggled, retail trade managed a slight increase, adding 500 positions in July. However, this gain contrasts with a four-year downward trend in retail employment, which has seen a total decrease of 12,700 jobs since July 2022.
The state unemployment rate remained fixed at 5.2 percent for the seventh consecutive month. This figure is higher than the national unemployment rate, which sat at 4.1 percent in July. The data points to a period of recalibration across various labor sectors in the region.