Oregon’s Unemployment Rate, July 15

Oregon’s unemployment rate was 5.5 percent in June, a slight increase from May’s rate of 5.3 percent. The increase was not a surprise because one characteristic of Oregon’s labor market following the Great Recession has been small increases in the unemployment rate during the summer months. Unemployment typically rises each summer as movers to Oregon, recent graduates, and students on summer break look for jobs. However, the influx of unemployed during each of the past four summers was larger than expected, which led to temporary increases in the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate. This summer could be showing a similar pattern. Despite the slight increase in June, the unemployment rate remained significantly lower than the June 2014 rate of 7.0 percent. Oregon’s unemployment rate in June remained close to the national unemployment rate of 5.3 percent.