Recently released U.S. Census data on Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 paint a challenging picture for young workers in Central Oregon, with inflation-adjusted wages dropping well below 1980 levels.

The findings were collected through the American Community Survey, an ongoing random sampling conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau that supplements the official census count, which is held every 10 years. Survey data gathered between 2009 and 2013 are compared against official census findings collected in 1980, 1990 and 2000.

Due to limited sample sizes, the margin of error on some findings is significant. While the survey found, for instance, that 11.9 percent of Jefferson County residents 18 to 34 have at least a bachelor’s degree, the margin of error on the question is 3.7 percent — placing the actual figure likely somewhere between 8.2 and 15.6 percent.

Economic data collected through the survey show a significant decline in living standards for young people in Central Oregon since 1980. Where in 1980 the median income for young workers in all three counties was above the national average, all three now come in below the national average. The steepest fall was in Crook County, where inflation-adjusted incomes for young people have slipped 32 percent since 1980, and the employment rate has fallen from 71.6 to 53 percent.

Roger Lee, executive director of Economic Development for Central Oregon, said the last few decades have been particularly difficult for rural communities. Younger people who move away to go to college or find employment often never return, he said, triggering a self-sustaining cycle of economic contraction.

The industries that sustain rural communities are often unable to accommodate a growing population of workers, Lee said.

“In agricultural and rural communities, there’s only so many jobs that can be replaced,” he said. “You might have a decent-sized family, four kids, but only one kid is going to take over the farm — so what are the other three going to do?”

Lee said organizations such as his are looking to recruit new kinds of companies to the region, to diversify the economy beyond the agricultural and extractive industries. He said increasingly, he hears stories of mill workers and others in traditional rural industries discouraging their children from following in their footsteps.

“It’s old-school thinking to think we’re just going to have these jobs waiting here for these kids,” Lee said. “More and more, it’s creating an environment where they can create their own employment.”

A sluggish economy can often make it difficult for young people of limited means and education to get their first job, said Laura Handy, executive director of Heart of Oregon Corps. The Bend-based nonprofit provides employment to roughly 250 Central Oregonians ranging from their midteens to their late 20s, offering jobs in forestry, construction and environmental projects. Employees can earn a modest wage and, in some cases, scholarship funds to attend college.

Handy said young people entering the workforce without prior employment face considerable barriers.

“A lot of times an entry-level job, it’s still posted with, ‘You need two years’ experience and a college degree,’” she said. “It’s a job that in previous generations would have been considered an entry-level job.”

Leaving a rural area for the employment opportunities available in larger cities simply is not an option for everyone, Handy said.

“It’s definitely a middle-class, or upper middle-class ideal, ‘If you can’t find a job, just move,’” she said. “If your whole family comes from generations of poverty, you may not have the resources to move anywhere.”

Central Oregon Community College spokesman Ron Paradis said the college was looking to lower those kinds of barriers when it opened campuses in Madras and Prineville three years ago.

“We know we have not had as many students from those areas, and part of that’s accessibility,” he said. “It’s very easy for somebody from Bend to take classes here, not so easy for somebody from Madras or Prineville.”

Paradis said over the last 10 to 15 years, COCC has shifted its course offerings from general education toward career certifications for jobs in areas such as criminal justice, manufacturing, pharmacy and massage therapy.

While the career certifications are an attractive option for many young people, accessibility is still an issue, Paradis said, with most courses still available only on the Bend and Redmond COCC campuses.

Noneconomic subjects examined in the census survey showed young adults in Central Oregon largely in line with trends observed nationally. Young people are roughly half as likely to have ever been married than they were three decades ago, and almost twice as likely to report living with a parent, both nationwide and in Central Oregon.

Like much of the rest of the country, Central Oregon has become less white over the last 30 years. In Jefferson County, the most racially diverse county in the state, 55.5 percent of residents report their race or ethnicity as something other than white. The survey found 15.8 percent of Deschutes County residents stating a nonwhite racial background, and 14.1 percent of Crook County residents.

— Reporter: 541-383-0387, shammers@bendbulletin.com