Umatilla, Morrow counties create almost 1,300 new jobs

This story was published Fri, Sep 21, 2001

By Mary Hopkin
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON - Almost 1,300 new jobs were created in Umatilla and Morrow counties over the past year, according to numbers from the Oregon Employment Department.

Over the year ending in July, Umatilla County gained 1,030 jobs for a total of 28,890. Dallas Fridley, regional economist for the Oregon Employment Department, said 350 more jobs were available in goods-producing companies and the number of service industry jobs rose by 680.

In Morrow County, the department counted a gain of 240 jobs over the year, mostly in service and goods-producing industries.

Many of those jobs are still available, said Joe Eddy, employment specialist in the Hermiston office of the Oregon Employment Department.

"Our job list is as long as it's ever been," Eddy said.

Eddy said the employment department is looking for restaurant and hotel helpers, farm workers, truck drivers and mechanics.

"In addition, we have several highly technical skilled positions available at the (Umatilla Chemical Depot)," Eddy said.

While year-to-year job growth was evident in Umatilla County, its unemployment rate rose by nearly one point in July over the month before, reaching 6.1 percent.

In Morrow County, however, the number of unemployed workers dropped slightly.

"Umatilla County posted a loss of 550 nonfarm payroll jobs in July," Fridley said.

There were more jobs available in the service industry, but those could not cover the 610 jobs lost during July because of the schools' summer break, he said. That drop is mostly a normal seasonal loss.

In Morrow County, the jobless rate fell three-tenths of a point in July to 8.2 percent - a vast improvement over a year ago, when the unemployment rate hit 15 percent.

Fridley said Morrow County had 40 more people earning a paycheck in July for a total of 3,020 nonfarm workers.

Statewide, the unemployment rate rose during the early months of summer from 5.5 percent in June to 6.1 percent in July.

Fridley said as of July more than 3,600 jobs had been adversely affected at least in part by an increase in energy prices.

"Although not all of these impacts have resulted in permanent job losses, they do provide some insight on the broader employment shifts associated with rising energy prices," Fridley said. "Typically, the loss of a directly impacted job may be assumed to cause the indirect loss of one additional job within a period of a year or two."

 

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