The unemployment rate in Central Oregon remained basically unchanged in August, although the region continued to add jobs at a faster clip than the state overall, according to data released Monday by the Oregon Employment Department.

Still, unemployment levels in all three Central Oregon counties remain higher than the state rate of 7.2 percent and the national rate of 6.1 percent, wrote Damon Runberg, regional economist.

In Deschutes County, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in August increased by 0.10 of a percentage point to 8.2 percent, a statistically insignificant increase, Runberg wrote. Employers added 480 jobs when a loss of 140 is the norm, he reported.

“On a seasonally adjusted basis, employment levels (in Deschutes County) are now only 3,140 jobs shy of peak employment,” Runberg wrote Monday.

He said the department has more confidence in the data it collects from employers about job creation than the data it collects about unemployment. The jobs numbers, collected from employer tax data, are revised on a quarterly basis and reflect greater accuracy than the unemployment numbers, which are collected through phone surveys and revised once a year.

So, monthly unemployment data may seem to contradict data that shows job growth, Runberg said by telephone. “It’s frustrating when we see the numbers not going in the same direction,” he said.

Close to 1,000 more people were working in the leisure and hospitality sector in Deschutes County in August than were employed in that sector a year ago, according to Employment Department data. The business and professional services sectors hired 110 more people in August than worked in the field the previous month, and 550 year over year, the department reported.

The employment bump in tourism coincides with a historic highs in gross lodging revenue and occupancy rates in Bend over the past year, according to Visit Bend. Lodging revenue in July had grown 29 percent over the previous year; the occupancy rate reached 84 percent that month, nearly 5 percentage points higher than the same month in 2013.

In Crook County, the unemployment rate in August remained unchanged from the prior month at 10.2 percent, according to the department. The county gained 230 nonfarm jobs over the past year, an increase of 4.4 percent.

Jefferson County shed 90 jobs in August, a typical decline this time of year, according to Runberg. The unemployment rate there ticked up from 9.3 percent in July to 9.5 percent in August, also statistically insignificant. The county gained 160 jobs over the past year.

— Reporter: 541-617-7815, jditzler@bendbulletin.com