Oregon entered the second half of summer with fewer jobs on employer payrolls and an unemployment rate that remains above the national level, adding another month of mixed economic signals for workers, businesses and communities across the state. Newly released employment figures for July show that Oregon lost approximately 4,100 nonfarm payroll jobs during the month, with reductions extending across professional services, hospitality, government and manufacturing even as several industries continued to add workers.
The July figures provide a more detailed measure of an Oregon labor market that has been moving unevenly rather than uniformly in one direction. Some industries continue to expand, employers are still filling thousands of positions, and long-range state projections anticipate employment growth during the next decade. At the same time, the immediate labor market contains measurable weaknesses that extend beyond a single month, including sustained manufacturing losses, lower government employment, declining hospitality payrolls and an unemployment rate that has remained at 5.2 percent throughout the first seven months of 2026.
Oregon employers reduced seasonally adjusted nonfarm payroll employment by 4,100 jobs in July, according to the Oregon Employment Department. Private employers accounted for approximately 3,400 of those positions, while government payrolls declined by another 700.
Professional and business services recorded the largest July reduction, losing approximately 1,800 jobs. Leisure and hospitality employment fell by 900, manufacturing declined by 500 and other services also lost 500. Wholesale trade declined by approximately 300 jobs, while health care and social assistance decreased by roughly the same amount. Private educational services posted a smaller reduction of approximately 100 positions.
The losses were not universal. Retail trade added approximately 500 jobs during July, financial activities gained about 400 and mining and logging increased by approximately 100. Several additional industries recorded little significant monthly movement.
Oregon’s unemployment rate remained at 5.2 percent in July, extending a level that has persisted for seven consecutive months. The national unemployment rate stood at 4.1 percent during the same month, leaving Oregon’s rate 1.1 percentage points higher than the national figure.
The difference does not mean that 5.2 percent of Oregon’s entire population is unemployed. The unemployment rate measures people participating in the civilian labor force who do not have a job, are available to work and meet the statistical requirements for being classified as unemployed. Approximately 2.1 million Oregonians were employed during July, while roughly 118,000 were classified as unemployed.
July’s payroll decline also requires the context provided by revisions to previous monthly estimates. Oregon initially reported that employers had eliminated approximately 600 jobs in June. More complete information subsequently changed that estimate to a gain of approximately 1,300 positions. Monthly payroll estimates are routinely revised as additional employer information becomes available, making individual monthly increases or decreases less conclusive than employment patterns sustained over longer periods.
Several of Oregon’s longer-term figures nevertheless indicate that portions of the state’s employment base have contracted.
Professional and business services employment declined by approximately 2,500 jobs, or 1 percent, during the 12 months ending in July. Within that broad category, management of companies and enterprises accounted for approximately 2,200 fewer positions, a reduction of 4.6 percent. Professional and technical services gained approximately 200 jobs over the same period, while administrative and waste services declined by about 500.
Leisure and hospitality provides another example of the difference between a monthly movement and a broader employment picture. The industry employed approximately 203,800 people in July, about 3,500 fewer than its average employment level of 207,300 from 2023 through 2025. Approximately 3,800 positions have disappeared from the sector since January.
Not every part of the hospitality and recreation economy contracted. Arts, entertainment and recreation added approximately 200 jobs during July and reached an employment level of about 31,300, its highest recorded level. The figures illustrate an Oregon economy in which industries grouped under the same broad employment category can move in different directions simultaneously.
Government payrolls have also become smaller. Government employment in Oregon declined by approximately 4,500 positions, or 1.4 percent, between July 2025 and July 2026. Federal employment decreased by approximately 1,600 jobs, representing a 5.7 percent reduction. State government employment declined by approximately 200 positions, while local government payrolls decreased by about 2,700.
Those numbers carry different economic implications across Oregon because government employment is not distributed evenly throughout the state. Federal agencies and public-sector employers represent a greater share of employment in some rural communities, meaning a relatively modest statewide reduction can have a more visible effect in communities where government agencies are among the larger employers.
Manufacturing presents one of the clearest examples of sustained employment contraction. Although manufacturers eliminated approximately 500 positions in July, earlier state figures showed that Oregon manufacturing employment had already fallen by approximately 10,000 jobs between June 2025 and June 2026, a reduction of 5.6 percent.
Both major divisions of manufacturing participated in that decline. Durable-goods manufacturers lost approximately 5,800 positions during that 12-month period, while nondurable-goods manufacturing lost approximately 4,200. Manufacturing remains economically significant in Oregon communities where wood products, machinery, metals, food processing and related industries provide employment and support businesses connected to those operations.
Retail employment moved in the opposite direction during July, adding approximately 500 jobs, but the industry’s longer history provides a different comparison. Oregon had approximately 198,000 retail jobs in July, about 12,700 fewer than in July 2022. That represents a decline of roughly 6 percent over four years. The July increase therefore recovered only a portion of employment lost during the industry’s longer contraction.
The national labor market was also softer in July, although its industry composition differed from Oregon’s. U.S. nonfarm payroll employment declined by approximately 23,000 jobs, while the national unemployment rate remained at 4.1 percent. Federal labor statistics showed substantial employment reductions in local government education and retail trade nationally, while health care continued adding workers.
National payroll estimates for earlier months were also revised downward. May and June employment gains were reduced by a combined 103,000 positions after additional information became available, reinforcing the importance of treating initial monthly employment estimates as preliminary measurements rather than final counts.
Oregon’s employment picture contains areas of strength that prevent the July report from being interpreted solely through the industries losing workers. Health care and social assistance had been one of the state’s strongest sources of employment growth before July’s monthly decline. In the 12 months ending in June, the industry had added approximately 14,000 jobs, an increase of 4.5 percent. Social assistance, nursing and residential care facilities, ambulatory health services and hospitals all contributed to that annual growth at varying rates.
Employers also continue to report vacancies across Oregon. State employment research conducted during winter 2026 identified openings in more than 200 occupations, with particularly large numbers of vacancies in health care support, health care practitioner and technical occupations, and community and social services. The existence of substantial vacancies alongside a 5.2 percent unemployment rate demonstrates that the number of available workers and the number of available jobs do not necessarily move together. Geography, occupational qualifications, wages, schedules and required experience can separate unemployed workers from existing vacancies.
Oregon’s longer-range employment projections also differ from the immediate monthly statistics. State economists project total employment will increase approximately 6 percent between 2024 and 2034, adding an estimated 140,600 jobs. Those projections describe expected structural changes over a decade and do not predict uninterrupted employment growth from month to month or year to year.
The July report therefore presents two economic time frames. Oregon continues to have industries adding workers and is projected to have a larger employment base over the next decade, while current payroll data document reductions in several major industries and unemployment that remains above the national rate.
A more precise regional picture will become available when the Oregon Employment Department releases July employment and unemployment figures for counties and metropolitan areas on Tuesday, Aug. 25. Those figures will show how employment conditions differ among Portland and the Willamette Valley, Central and Eastern Oregon, the coast and communities throughout Southern Oregon, including Jackson and Josephine counties.
Until those regional numbers are available, the statewide figures establish the broader economic baseline. Oregon lost 4,100 payroll jobs in July, unemployment remained at 5.2 percent, several major industries continued longer-running employment reductions, and other portions of the economy maintained or increased employment. The result is neither uniform contraction nor uniform growth, but a labor market in which employment opportunities and payroll reductions are occurring at the same time across different parts of Oregon’s economy.