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Salem unemployment rate again dropped in September, preliminary data shows

Early figures show Salem’s unemployment rate continued to steadily decline in September.

The city’s unemployment rate dropped from 4.4% in August to 3.9% in September, according to preliminary Bureau of Labor Statistics data published Wednesday.

The unemployment rate has declined each month since it was 6.7% in January.

The number of unemployed people fell from around 9,420 in August to 8,450 in September. That’s down about 10% from around 13,550 people unemployed in September 2020, when the unemployment rate was 6.5%.

Oregon Employment Department data showed Salem’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, which doesn’t include impacts from seasonal patterns, has steadily declined from 5.8% in May to 4.7% in September.

The seasonally adjusted number of unemployed people in Salem has steadily fallen from around 12,240 in April to 9,840 in September, according to state data. During the same month last year, around 14,510 Salem residents were unemployed.

-Ardeshir Tabrizian