Early figures show Salem’s unemployment rate saw its biggest decline in months, having steadily fallen for almost a year.
The city’s unemployment rate dropped from 4.1% in September to 3.4% in October, according to preliminary Bureau of Labor Statistics data published Wednesday.
The unemployment rate has steadily declined each month since it was 6.7% in January. The drop from September to October was the biggest decline the bureau recorded during that time.
The number of unemployed people fell from 8,588 in September to 7,053 in October. That’s down more than 41% from 12,078 people unemployed in October 2020, when the unemployment rate was 5.8%.
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 4.4% in September.
The seasonally adjusted number of unemployed people in Salem has steadily fallen from 12,244 in April to 9,227 in October, according to state data. During the same month last year, 12,806 Salem residents were unemployed.
-Ardeshir Tabrizian
