# Oregon’s Job Market Faces Headwinds with Rising Unemployment
It’s been a painful year for Oregon workers.
The state’s employers reported nearly 9,000 mass layoffs during 2025. That’s an extraordinary number by historical standards, topping the pace of job cuts during the worst days of the Great Recession.Oregon’s unemployment rate has climbed a full percentage point in the past year to 5.2%, its highest level since the pandemic. Oregon has the third-highest jobless rate of any state, behind only California (5.6%) and Nevada (5.3%).
Federal law only requires employers to report major job cuts, typically when a big employer lays off more than 50 people or a third of their staff. State data shows employers have cut thousands more jobs in smaller actions that aren’t reported publicly. Oregon has nearly 115,000 unemployed workers, according to the most recent state data.
Economists put the unemployed in three categories: Those who have lost their jobs, those who are new to the labor market, and those who quit their jobs.(Those who have been laid off or fired are frequently eligible for jobless benefits. Those in the other categories usually aren’t.)
In the tight labor market that followed the pandemic, most of Oregon’s unemployed were people who had come off the sidelines to look for work and take advantage of abundant opportunities and rising pay. The number of people quitting their jobs rose sharply as people sought better gigs. People who quit their jobs accounted for 5% of the unemployed at the end of 2020, than climbed to 16% in early 2024.
Now, fewer Oregonians are joining the labor market and even fewer are quitting. Most of the unemployed were laid off or fired.
“What’s happening in Oregon is also happening nationally, in broad strokes,” said gail Krumenauer, economist with the Oregon Employment Department.
The unemployment rate has been rising nationwide, to 4.4% in September. But it’s climbing faster in Oregon.
Why are things worse here? There are manny reasons but some of it has to do with Oregon being unusually reliant on manufa
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