Still Below Pre-Recession Peak, July 30

According to a report in the South Coast Trends August 2015 newsletter from the Oregon Employment Dept., Coos County is still 9.8 percent below its pre-recession peak or down 2,330 jobs as of May 2015. Curry County payroll employment is 13.5 percent, or 970 jobs below its peak employment level reached prior to the Great Recession. “We are comparing the most recent month of available data, which is May 2015, with the peak employment for each county for the years 2005 through 2008. The reason we chose to take the peak month from this four-year period is because job losses started in different months in each county. For example, employment in Curry County peaked in early 2006, which was well before the peak employment prior to the national recession. The two other counties in the Southwest Oregon Area – Douglas and Coos counties – saw their peak employment in 2006 as well.”