Central Oregon’s unemployment rates continued climbing in January, and at a faster pace than the rest of the state and nation, according to the Oregon Employment Department’s monthly unemployment report released Tuesday.

Deschutes, Jefferson and Crook counties posted, respectively, 12 percent, 12.9 percent and 14.9 percent seasonally adjusted unemployment rates during the month.

Crook County was particularly hard hit by the relocation of Les Schwab Tire Centers’ administrative staff from Prineville to Bend, according to Stephen Williams, a Salem-based usability analyst for the department.

Williams could not say how many jobs Crook County lost due to the Les Schwab transfer, but the county lost an estimated 410 jobs in January, he said. Typically, the county loses about 150 jobs in January, according to the report.

The company had planned to move 320-plus people to Bend, according to The Bulletin archives.

The Central Oregon jobless rates are record highs that come just a few years after each county posted historic lows, department data show, and Williams expects the rates to keep rising.

By comparison, the state and national seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for January were 7.6 percent and 9.9 percent, respectively.

The report shows both rising unemployment rates and year-over-year job losses for the tri-county region — an area that boomed during the 2004 to 2006 housing bubble with its heavy concentration of construction and real-estate-related jobs.

“These reports are showing the weakened state of the Central Oregon economy,” Williams said.

Crook County recorded 810 fewer jobs in January than in January 2008, a decline of 11.8 percent. It was the 18th consecutive month of year-over-year decline in employment, according to Tuesday’s report.

Wholesale trade, a private sector that includes Les Schwab, had the sharpest decline, dropping 44.2 percent. The sector shed 190 jobs in January, some of which were from Les Schwab moving its headquarters over the last few months of 2008 into early 2009, Williams said. Most of those jobs went to Deschutes County, which benefited the region as a whole, he said.

“You think about how big Les Schwab is — it is a big player,” Williams said. “Some of the jobs were transferred to Deschutes County. If we are looking at the region overall, it is better to keep those jobs in the region than to go somewhere else.”

Les Schwab officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Job seekers

With joblessness mounting, Central Oregon companies have been reporting a flood of applicants for any openings that arise.

At Bend-based Nosler Inc., which makes bullets, ammunition and rifles for hunters, law enforcement agencies and military units worldwide, a help-wanted ad last month generated more than 100 walk-in applicants in a matter of days, said John Nosler, general manager.

Since January, the manufacturer has hired 25 new employees whose hourly pay for light assembly work ranges from $10 to $18 based on experience, Nosler said. The company also is looking for trained engineers, he said.

The hourly positions have brought a steady stream of applicants, including one person who had owned his own business and had been making a six-figure income before the downturn, Nosler said.

“He was willing to work for $10 an hour. But at what point as an employer do you say they are overqualified?” Nosler said. “You have to wonder if they will have job satisfaction.”

The company, which has been in Bend for more than 50 years, is in growth mode mainly due to uncertainties about the economy, Nosler said.

“It got so chaotic in here, that we had to literally say, ‘By appointment only’ on the sign,” he said.

Another Bend employer, Pilot Butte Rehabilitation Center, has seen a flood of people looking for employment and training, said Duffy Dezember, administrator for the nursing home and rehabilitation center for seniors.

The company offers free training for prospective certified nursing assistants, Dezember said.

Numerous applicants, from people who were looking to change their fields or have lost their jobs, have applied for the training, he said.

“They used to be working for a mortgage company or got laid off for whatever reasons and are just looking to change their careers,” Dezember said.

Once they get the training, nursing assistant candidates need to pass a state test to become certified and possibly get a job in Bend or around the country, he said.

“No matter where you go in the country, you can get a job if you are certified,” he said.

Better than expected

Even though Central Oregon’s jobless totals have nearly doubled from a year ago — from an estimated 7,770 unemployed workers in January 2008 to roughly 15,615 in January 2009 — Deschutes County did not perform as badly as expected in January, Williams said.

Job losses in retail, construction and food service are typical for January, and about 60 fewer jobs were lost during the month than a typical January, Williams said.

“We have been shedding jobs as we have been going,” Williams said. “Maybe we lost them in earlier months.”

Jefferson County, which posted a slight uptick in its monthly unemployment figures, also did better than expected in January, according to the report.

The county has recorded a 6.1 percent year-over-year job loss with the largest losses in manufacturing, professional and business services, and educational and health services, according to the report.

This month’s unemployment report marked a shift for the Employment Department from raw, nonseasonally adjusted data to seasonally adjusted data for Crook, Jefferson and Deschutes counties, Williams said. The shift puts the counties in line with national and state data collections, he said.

If the Employment Department measured the unemployment rates using nonseasonally adjusted data, it would have been much worse — especially in Crook County, which would have had an 18.2 percent unemployment rate, according to the report.

“We were trying to make the rates more comparable from month to month,” Williams said. “The rate always jumps in January, but the seasonally adjusted rate takes out the seasonal fluctuations.”