Central Oregon Economic Indicators—December 2024

Economy in Central Oregon

By Andrew Grimoldby | Workforce Analyst/Economist, East Cascades Oregon Employment Department

December in View:

The nation’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate marginally decreased from 4.2% in November to 4.1% in December, and at the statewide level, the unemployment rate increased by 0.1% from 4.0% to 4.1%.

In Deschutes County, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased from 3.8% in December 2023 to 4.0% in December 2024. Crook County and Jefferson County decreased from 5.9% to 5.4% and 4.7% to 4.6%, respectively.

Topic of the Month: Population Growth in Central Oregon 2020-2024

Portland State University has recently released their most updated version of population estimates for the state of Oregon, its counties, and incorporated cities. I’ve normalized the data, which will allow us to compare across regions with vastly different population numbers. In this case, we’ve used 2020 as the baseline period and 100 as the index. If from 2020 to 2021 an area increased from 100 to 102, this would mean that there was a 2% increase.

In Central Oregon, Crook County has grown the fastest, growing by 5.8% (1,454 residents) since 2020. This brings Crook County to a total of 26,366 residents. Crook County was the fastest-growing population in the state since 2020.

Deschutes County grew by 4.8% (9,551 residents) since 2020 to a total of 208,612. Deschutes County grew the second fastest in the state.

Jefferson County grew by 3.6% (884 residents). The total population in Jefferson County is now 25,477. Jefferson County was the fourth fastest-growing county in the state since 2020.

Oregon grew by 0.6% (26,211 residents), which brings the total to 4,263,385.