Douglas County Economic Indicators - September 2026
The September 2026 Douglas County Economic Indicators are out now. You can find them attached and updated every month on our Quality Info Southwestern Oregon regional info page.
Douglas County’s nonfarm employment declined by 1% (-310 jobs) over the year to August. The largest losses were in manufacturing (-200 jobs), retail trade (-190 jobs) and construction (-80). Private education and health services grew by 260 jobs, and total employment was unchanged from July to August 2026.
Unemployment has been stable over the last year. The August seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.1%, slightly down from 6.4% the year before.
Graph of the Month: We recently released our geocoded industry and employment data for 2025, which allows us to look at wages and jobs in sub-county areas. This is a resource very few states can claim, and it’s a wealth of information about what’s going on in regions of our very large county. I used the data to look a little closer at the Reedsport area in coastal Douglas County.
Coastal Douglas has more jobs in health care, manufacturing, construction, natural resources and trade than Douglas County overall. The area has fewer jobs in leisure and hospitality and professional services than the county.
Some other great reads from around the state this month:
The Changing Face of the Nursing and Residential Care Industry on Quality Info
Oregon’s Nonresident Workers on Quality Info
Oregon’s 2025 Maritime Employment on Quality Info
If you have a data question or want to learn more about any of these topics, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Tomorrow I’ll be leaving on a few weeks’ vacation, but I will be back at my desk by mid-October and can respond to questions then.
Henry L. Fields
Regional Economist
Serving Lane and Douglas counties
Oregon Employment Department
(541) 359-9178
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