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Non-farm employment in the Portland metropolitan area fell by 0.8% in the 12-month period that ended in May, the largest job loss among the top 50 cities, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Las Vegas, Oklahoma City and San Antonio were the fastest growing, according to a regular email briefing by Jake Procino, a state economist for Oregon who covers Multnomah County.
The Portland area has been rocked by layoffs. Nike, for one, has 5% fewer workers than it did a year ago, The Oregonian reported last week, citing a securities filing. Intel’s employment dropped by the same amount in 2023, and thousands more jobs will be eliminated soon, Bloomberg News reported today. Oregon Health & Science University has been cutting workers since June.
Payments company Block, retailer Target, and video game maker Lost Boys Interactive also cut jobs in the year ending in May, according to so-called WARN notices filed with the state of Oregon. The name WARN derives from the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, passed in 1988.
“There have been a quite a few public notices and WARN notices showing layoffs, and that volume has been relatively high in the past year, both of which has likely contributed to the year-over-year job loss that we’ve seen in the Portland MSA,” Procino said in an email.
The Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, Yamhill and Columbia counties in Oregon, and Clark and Skamania counties in Washington.
Despite the cuts, the unemployment rate in the Portland area remains below its historical average. It was 4% in June, below the the 10-year average of 5%, Procino said. The state as a whole added jobs, he said. Oregon’s non-farm employment grew 0.6% in the year ending June 30.