Business and Labor

Oregon Recovers Nearly One-third Of Jobs Lost During Coronavirus Pandemic

By Meerah Powell

Published July 15, 2020 at 5:33 AM PDT

The Oregon Employment Department's Pandemic Unemployment Assistance website on July 8, 2020.

The Oregon Employment Department said Tuesday that the state had recovered more than 82,000 nonfarm, payroll jobs in the past two months.

That's nearly one-third of the jobs that were cut in March and April due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The leisure and hospitality sector, including restaurants and hotels, added 47,600 jobs in May and June, which was 39% of the more than 121,500 jobs initially cut due to the pandemic. The health care and social assistance sector has also seen a major rebound, OED reports, adding 15,700 jobs in the past two months. That’s 59% of the 26,800 jobs it had lost. Retail trade also bounced back by 49%, gaining 11,500 of the 23,300 jobs that were cut.

Many larger industries in the state have not seen significant rebounds, OED said, including professional and business services, manufacturing and government.

Oregon’s unemployment rate dropped to 11.2% in June, down from 14.3% in May.