Oregon's Unemployment Numbers in Freefall

By HANK STERN
11920
unemployment numbers
  1. The most recent rate is the highest of any month since January 1984, when Oregon's unemployment was 10.0 percent.
  2. A year ago, Oregon's unemployment rate was 5.3 percent. Translation: The latest 9.9 percent rate is nearly double the number from a year ago.
  3. The total number of 214,809 unemployed Oregonians is the largest number in the post-World War II period. During the past 30 years, in only three other months has the number of unemployed Oregonians been above 170,000: January 1983 (176,815 unemployed), February 1983 (173,118 unemployed), and December 2008 (173,121 unemployed).
  4. The U.S. unemployment rate has increased from less than 5 percent in early 2008 to 7.6 percent. Oregon's economy has collapsed more quickly, with Oregon's rate now more than two percentage points above the U.S. rate. Oregon's rate has been above the U.S. rate for more than ten years, but the difference has widened over the past few months.
And courtesy of WW, here are some suggestions to deal with the recession.

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