Sisters remains 'distressed' community

Sisters remains a "distressed community" by the standards of the Oregon Economic & Community Development Department (OECDD.)

Sisters earned that dubious distinction last year. This year, the community can take cold comfort in knowing that Sisters shares the label with the rest of Deschutes County.

Back in March 2008 Sisters was labeled a "severely distressed community" by OECDD. Michael W. Anderson, economic analyst with the Oregon Economic & Community Development Department, based in Portland, explained, "the agency uses both state and federal data that are available annually to look at counties statewide in four areas: percentage of the population with a bachelor's degree age 25 or higher, unemployment rate, percentage of the population below poverty and per-capita income."

Sisters received the "severely distressed" designation for being below the state average in all four categories. At that time Oregon's overall unemployment rate was 5.5 percent, slightly above the U.S. average of 5.1 percent.

Fast-forward to March 2009 and the economic situation in Sisters, as in all of Oregon, has worsened. Escalating home foreclosures combined with job layoffs weigh heavily on Sisters Country residents this year.

OECDD published the 2009 "Distressed Counties" data for Oregon last week on their Web site at http://www.oregon4biz.com/distlist.htm - and the news is not good.

Oregon's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has jumped to 12.10 percent (up from 5.5 percent a year ago). In comparison, the US unemployment rate rose to 8.5 percent (from 5.1 percent last year).

The data for the Bend/Deschutes County Metropolitan Service Area is sobering. Unemployment more than doubled, to 14.7 percent, up from 6.7 percent a year ago.

Crook County also experienced skyrocketing unemployment, hitting 18.5 percent this year, up from 8 percent in 2008. Jefferson County's rate is 16.2 percent this year, compared to 8.6 percent in 2008.

Michael W. Anderson, with the OECDD, explained recently that, when Oregon's overall unemployment rate tops 8 percent, the department shifts its data generation from singling-out distressed communities to identifying "temporary distressed counties."

"The temporary methodology is used when the current unemployment rate in Oregon exceeds 8 percent," Anderson said. "To determine whether a county is distressed, the only factor reviewed is the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for that county. If that county's unemployment rate exceeds 8 percent in a month in which Oregon's unemployment rate exceeds 8 percent, the county is distressed. All places and cities within a distressed county are considered distressed."

So Sisters, along with all our surrounding communities within Deschutes County is considered distressed. The only way to come off the distressed county list is to have unemployment fall below 8 percent, which is not likely to happen anytime soon. Most observers expect the rate to keep rising throughout 2009.