Oregon Public Broadcasting

The state released its county unemployment numbers for March Monday.

And the situation on a county-by-county basis is even scarier than the state’s overall 12.1 percent unemployment rate.

Central Oregon correspondent Ethan Lindsey reports.

Remember, Oregon’s 12.1 percent March unemployment rate was the second-worst in the country, behind the rust belt epicenter of Michigan.

And now the regional numbers show that unemployment in several Oregon counties is far worse than the state average.

The rate in Crook County and Prineville is at 18.5 percent.

In Burns and Harney County, 17.1 percent of the workforce is jobless.

Only six counties in the state boast unemployment rates in the single digits. At 8.4 percent, Corvallis and Benton County’s employment picture is the least-worst in the state.

And yet, Oregonians can still take solace in a comparison to Michigan. In six Michigan counties, the jobless rate is over 20 percent.

In Mackinac County, close to one in three workers is out of a job.