The U.S. Census Bureau and the Local Employment Dynamics (LED) Partnership in collaboration with the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) and the Labor Market Information (LMI) Institute, welcomes Gail Krumenauer as she presents, “Impacts of the Pandemic Recession and Re-Employment in Oregon.”

The acute onset and depth of the pandemic recession was unlike anything seen previously in Oregon. What was a healthy economy lost 286,000 jobs in two months’ time. The impacts were not evenly distributed with in-person, service-based sectors experiencing significantly higher rates of job loss.

Two years after the pandemic recession, Oregon’s labor market had seen a remarkable turnaround. A rapid jobs recovery brought unemployment near record lows again. Seven out of 10 pandemic recession unemployment benefit claimants in Oregon were back on the job by winter 2022, and they had experienced an increase in median wages.