Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon’s 36 counties reported a mixed bag Monday in terms of employment rates.

For instance, Morrow, Wallowa, and Coos counties all saw their unemployment rates in October shoot up by at least a full percentage point.

At the same time, central Oregon’s Crook County saw its jobless rate dip by a full point.

Carolyn Eagan is the central Oregon regional economist for the state.

Carolyn Eagan: “We’re very happy about that drop. It’s good news for Crook County. What we have seen in Crook County is a decline in the number of people in the labor force. That could be for a number of reasons. We have seen a dramatic increase in school enrollment across the state. So we may have some residents choose to go back to school full-time.”

Crook County also got some good news over the weekend when the Bend Bulletin reported that a major data center was in negotiations to move to the area.

The Prineville area still has the state’s second-worst jobless rate, with 18.1-percent of those seeking work unable to find a job.

In the Portland metro area, unemployment rate rose by a tenth-of-a-percent in October.