Unemployment in Lane County continued to follow a statewide growth trend in September, according to the latest report from the Oregon Employment Department.
The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in the Eugene area reached 5%, an increase of seven-tenths of a percentage point over the past year.
Numbers have steadily increased since May 2023, when the area hit a recent low of 3.6%.
"It hasn’t gone off a cliff, but it has been a very slow increase and it’s finally starting to look significant," said OED Regional Labor Economist Brian Rooney.
Rooney said unemployment trends between central and western Oregon are similar to what’s happening statewide, though increases and rates have been slightly lower in the area than the state as a whole.
A bright spot in the report is continued growth in health care jobs, a trend that is happening in many places around the country.
“We have an aging population across the country,” said Rooney. “Baby boomers are getting older, and as you get older, you need healthcare.”
He said a particular sign that job growth is due to aging is that a portion of it is in residential care facilities.
While shoppers are wrapping up the holiday shopping season, hiring to help with the rush are not in this report. Rooney said new hires in areas such as retail and transportation jobs usually show up in October’s employment report, which will not be available due to the government shutdown suspending data collection that month.
Any holiday season hiring will likely be seen in the November report, which will arrive in early January.
