However, Runberg tells KBND News it shouldn’t have a drastic impact on the region's overall unemployment rate because healthcare has been a growing industry in Central Oregon, "I don’t believe it’s going to turn it from being an industry that’s been gaining jobs to an industry that will be losing jobs, though, going forward. If anything, we’ll just see the industry sort of level-off or plateau, I’d imagine, with those layoffs." He says healthcare is an industry everyone needs and is driven by non-discretionary spending, "What drives non-discretionary expenses tends to be population - the more people; the more people need to use health services - As well as the demographics of a community; so, the how old a community is. The older it is, the more people use health services. So, we are both growing rapidly and we are aging simultaneously. And so, those two things together, I don’t think we’re going to see too much of a negative impact on healthcare in the long run." And, Runberg thinks those laid off from St. Charles will find new work quickly, "In different settings, obviously. We only have one hospital system here in Central Oregon, but we do have lots of healthcare outside the hospital setting."