Recent Detailed Industry Employment and Wages in Curry County
September 22, 2026There are two main sources for industry employment data at the county level. Monthly estimates are published under the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program. The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages program (QCEW) publishes quarterly data resulting from employer’s tax records. The QCEW data are best considered a point-in-time snapshot of employment by industry sector. Changes in unemployment insurance coverage requirements, what industry code a particular business is assigned, or even what county or location the employment for a business is counted may change. These are some of the reasons the CES data are best for analyzing trends in industry employment for a specific geography over time.
Both of these data sets are readily searchable and are located under the “tools” tab at QualityInfo.org. The QCEW data are at: Employment & Wages by Industry (QCEW), with the most detailed data by county available at the 3-digit level of detail quarterly. The more current estimates of industry employment at the county level can be found at: Current Employment Estimates (CES) and are usually published to the broad sector level of detail.
In the movie Shek, Shrek explains to Donkey that ogres are like onions. “They have layers,” he exclaims. The same might be said about employment by industry statistics. If you want even more granular industry employment and wage statistics at the county level, you can peel back more layers of that information onion to find more precise levels of detail. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes data for many industries down to the 4-, 5-, and 6-digit level of industry detail. These data can be found at Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.
In this article we’ll highlight a few data points in this exhaustive information series. Starting at the onion skin, where we get the entire covered employment picture: In March 2026, Curry County had 5,165 private-sector jobs with an average weekly wage of $879. This series is titled “high level” on the BLS data viewer tool and captures all covered employment (payroll) jobs for that quarter and provides some industry break-outs. The largest industries by employment were trade, transportation and utilities (1,176); leisure and hospitality (1,054); and education and health services (869).
Location quotients are also provided, showing the relative concentration of employment in an industry for a particular area compared with the U.S. An industry with a location quotient of 1.0 for a local area would have the same share of jobs in that sector as the overall U.S. economy. A location quotient of 2.0 would mean that there is double the percent of employment in that industry in a local area, compared with the share of employment in that industry in the U.S. Industries with the highest location quotients were natural resources and mining (2.79); leisure and hospitality (1.54); and manufacturing (1.38). Information, financial activities, and professional and business services all had relatively less employment concentration than the U.S.
The highest average weekly wage was in the information industry ($1,460), followed by manufacturing ($1,237) and professional and business services ($1,174). Financial activities ($1,139) and construction ($1,076) also paid above the all-private industry average in Curry County.
As we peel back another layer of the industry employment onion in Curry County, at the 2-digit level of detail, about 90% of total payroll employment is published, with a few sectors suppressed due to confidentiality. Here we find accommodation and food services had the most jobs in March 2026, at 1,020. As this is quarterly data, the number would be higher if we were looking at the third quarter, or summer employment. Even so, during first quarter 2026 Curry County accommodation and food services had about 1.8 times the share of employment as the U.S. (LQ=1.76). Retail trade had the second most jobs by 2-digit industry, at 955. This shows a higher share of jobs locally with a location quotient of 1.56. Both industries pay relatively lower average weekly wages of $470 and $659, respectively. Having a larger share employment in lower-paying industries is one factor in Curry County’s lower all-industry average wage compared with Oregon or the U.S.
Slicing deeper into this data, we have the 3-digit industry level – like the detail available on QualityInfo.org. Further details require further suppressions, resulting in about 75% of total payroll employment by industry published for Curry County. At this level of detail, accommodation and food services employment is split out by food services and drinking places (774 jobs in March 2026) and accommodations (246 jobs). In other industries, detail is lost. For example, now the only manufacturing industry published is food manufacturing, which shows little employment during first quarter 2026.
Within the health care and social assistance sector, the 300 jobs in nursing and residential care facilities is a concentration of nearly three times the U.S. share of jobs. Forest and logging (74 jobs) and fishing, hunting, and trapping (31 jobs) show a small share of total employment, but large location quotients of 41.4 and 109.2 – which makes sense considering most of the U.S. has a small share or no jobs in these sectors. These data include only jobs covered by unemployment insurance, and numerous fishing jobs fall outside this coverage.
Carving into what the BLS publishes that is not available on QualityInfo.org – detail at the 4-, 5- and 6-digit level reveals more specifics about some sectors and obscures a greater share of total jobs. At the 4-digit level, just more than half of total jobs are published for Curry County. Here we find some interesting differences between wages within the retail trade sector. Overall, retail trade had an average weekly wage of $659. However, some sectors within retail trade paid better such as furniture and home furnishing retailers ($999), health and personal care retailers ($849), and building material and supply dealers ($839).
Being a such a scenic part of the country, it’s easy to see why traveler accommodation (2.66) and particularly recreational vehicle parks and recreational camps (21.57) would have higher location quotients. Highway, street, and bridge construction (4.46) also had a notable share of jobs within Curry County. In the professional and technical sector, lower concentrations were found in architectural, engineering, and related services (0.15); computer systems design and related services (0.23); management, scientific, and technical consulting services (0.34); accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping, and payroll services (0.37); and legal services (0.41).
At the 5-digit industry level, slightly less than 40% of total employment is published by industry in Curry County. This level of detail shows data specifically for supermarkets and other grocery retailers, with about 175 jobs paying an average weekly wage of $615, and also for convenience retailers and vending machine operators which had close to 40 jobs paying an average weekly wage of $436 in first quarter 2026.
Finally, at the 6-digit industry level, we find information on just one-in-three payroll jobs. Within this level we see that limited services restaurants had 255 jobs during March 2026 and full-service restaurants had more jobs at about 400. Average weekly wages were $500 in full-service establishments compared with $460 for limited-service restaurants.
There are many layers to this employment by industry data, much like an onion or an ogre. I hope this encourages you to explore the county-level data in your industry or sector of interest.
