SALEM — Oregon added 20,000 jobs in July and the state’s jobless rate dropped from 5.6% to 5.2%, the steepest monthly decline in nearly a year.

The numbers out Tuesday, Aug. 17, from the Oregon Employment Department indicate the state is continuing its rapid recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, but the rampant spread of the coronavirus’ delta variant has introduced considerable uncertainty for the fall.

And tens of thousands of unemployed Oregonians face additional hardship when expanded federal benefits expire next month.

The national unemployment rate was 5.4% last month. In Oregon, July’s job gains were more than double the monthly average of 9,100 over the prior six months.

Oregon counted 105,000 workers as unemployed last month, a little more than half as many as in July 2020.

Hiring was strongest in the government and the leisure- and-hospitality sectors, which added 12,800 and 7,100 jobs, respectively. Those segments were among those hardest hit by the pandemic, and both had been struggling to find workers after the state began widespread reopening last spring.

Employment at hotels, restaurants and bars remains well below where it was before the pandemic. The employment department says the leisure- and-hospitality sector has regained just 60% of the jobs lost to the pandemic recession.

Expanded federal benefits in place since the pandemic began in March 2020 will end the week of Sept. 4 unless Congress steps in with a last-minute extension, a prospect that looks unlikely given the sharp partisan divide in the Capitol.

That would mean an end to $70 million in weekly benefits for tens of thousands of Oregonians, many of whom are not counted in the monthly unemployment figures.

The expanded programs include a $300 weekly bonus, extended benefits for people who remained unemployed for a long period of time, and a program called Pandemic Unemployment Assistance for contractors and other self-employed workers who aren’t usually eligible for jobless aid.

Oregon had 115,000 people receiving assistance under such temporary federal programs at the end of July, though that figure has been falling rapidly for several months and may number fewer than 100,000 when the expanded benefits expire after Labor Day.