According to the State of Oregon’s Employment Departments Annette Shelton-Tiderman, as Curry County’s unemployment rates reach record lows, other statistics are also showing improvement. Although not yet back to pre-recession levels, Curry County’s civilian labor force is currently above 9,000. The last peak was in 2005 at 9,584. The labor force declined after 2005, bottoming out in 2014 (8,613) – long after other parts of the state were well into recovery. The number of people unemployed averaged 551 in 2017, substantially less than the recessionary peak of unemployed that soared to 1,250 in 2009. The county’s employment levels continue to show noticeable growth. The number of payroll-employed individuals peaked in 2005 at 7,044; dropped to 6,039 in 2011 and then climbed to 6,530 (2017).
Currently, in Curry County, the largest employing sector is government (20.6%). Within government, federal employment accounts for 5.8 percent; state for 19.1 percent; and local government for 75.1 percent. Local government has a substantial number of jobs in health care and social assistance (31.7%) and in education (36.6%). Other major industries include trade, transportation, and utilities (18.0%; of which, 84.7% is retail trade); leisure and hospitality (17.9%); private education and health services (9.9%); primarily health care and social assistance); and manufacturing (9.7%). Within manufacturing, an industry long known for good-paying jobs, wood product manufacturing accounts for 68.8 percent of the 2017 employment, down from 76.5 percent in 2005.
Population drives supply and demand for goods and services. It is important to note that since 2010, the county’s population has remained stable, averaging around 2.0 percent growth. As is typical in rural areas, the population is aging, and by 2017, one-third of residents were ages 65 and over. The loss of jobs and population considerations, including a slow growth rate, an increasingly older population, and continued reliance on in-migration, suggest that the county may continue to find it challenging to sustain business expansion and regain peak employment levels across all industries.
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