09/26/2025
Lane County's unemployment rate was 4.9% in August, up from last month and also up compared with August of last year, but there are bright spots in the local economy.
“Just because they're higher, obviously that is a more concerning job market,” said Henry Fields, regional economist for Lane County. “But that doesn't necessarily mean that unemployment is the same as it was in April of 2020, or during the aftermath of the Great Recession. Those times, we're looking more at like 8%, 10%, 12% unemployment, which is a really serious problem.”
While the Eugene-Springfield metro area had 800 fewer nonfarm jobs than last August, it saw an increase of 1,600 jobs in the last month. Most of the gains came in health care, which grew by 1,500 jobs in the past year.
Fields sees the growth in health care jobs as a “bright spot” for employment locally, especially considering how the industry was hit hard during 2020.
Health care “structurally is really well oriented to continue growing, because as our population ages, there's an increased demand for health care services,” he said. “We're also locally a kind of regional health care center, meaning people come here for a lot of their health care needs from outlying rural areas, so that demand is a little bit more stable and structural than other industries tend to be.”
Fields cautions that while strong growth in health care is certainly better than no job growth, it doesn’t indicate strength for the local economy as a whole. Those laid off in other industries would still have a hard time finding a job in the same industry, and many are unlikely to transition into health care given the educational experience required, he said.
Since August 2024, the Eugene-Springfield metro area has seen a 0.5% drop in employment.
This is worse than other comparable mid-sized metro areas such as Bend, Salem and Corvallis, which all saw growth in employment since August 2024. The Portland metro area, however, saw a 1.6% drop in employment.
The industries that experienced losses include manufacturing, construction and business services. Fields says while it’s hard to pin down a specific reason for these declines, nationwide, uncertain economic conditions have dampened hiring across industries.
High interest rates and slower population growth have hurt the construction industry, slowing demand for new buildings and construction services altogether. Read the story from Michael Zhang
Lane County’s unemployment rate was 4.9% in August, up from last month and also up compared with August of last year, but there are bright spots in the local economy. “Just because they’re higher, obviously that is a more concerning job market,” said Henry Fields, regional economist for La...
