Oregon sees another record-breaking week of unemployment claims

Guy Tauer from the Oregon Employment Department joined us to talk about what the agency is doing to process all of those claims.

On low budgets before the pandemic.number of initial t claims in u-s history.

The highest was the week before.

More than 269-thousand oregonians have field for unemployment insurances in the last three weeks.

For coarison- the total job loss in oregon during the recession was nearly 149-thousand.

During the week of march 29th- the state employment department got more than 100-thousand initial claims. the oregon employment department has more th quadrupled the number of staff to handle the record.

Number of claims. god tower with the oregon employment department joins us now.

Right now.

Can the employment department keep up with all those claims?

Well, we're certainly giving it ourest shot.

Um, we've hit a couple of days last week where we actually exceeded the number of claims that we processed compared to the number that came in.

So we are gradually getting our head above water.

Are you seeing the numbers starting to go down or are they staying consistent?

How would you characterize.

Well, actually, we broke another record last week.

Um, we had, uh, just over a hundred thousand initial claims filed in oregon, and that's up from about 92,700 the week before.

So we are still seeing those record levels continue and we have not seen a slowdown yet.

Certainly not a record anybody wanted to see.

But i guess in this case, it's great that you guys have increased staff to handle it.

Uh, where are you seeing the greatest hits in terms of our statewide economy?

Well, in terms of the industry breakout, we don't have industry breakout for all industries, but we are by far seeing the largest share in the accommodations and food services sector.

So that's about 40% of all the initial claims we've seen over the past three weeks, uh, since the coven.

And then mick has really hit the job market in oregon and southern oregon.

We've also seen, uh, you know, locally as well.

Uh, we've seen about, uh, about 1100 initial claims and the combinations and food services sector in the last, i'm sorry, about 1600, and the combinations and food services in the last three weeks and nearly 1100 as well.

In.

Healthcare and social assistance.

So with a lot of those elective procedures being put on hold and a non-emergency dental care not being done, uh, saving pp, e for, um, emergency use.

Uh, we've seen cutbacks there as well.

Uh, retail trade, we've seen about 800 claims locally in jackson county in the last three weeks.

And also certainly see some other claims crop up in, um, sectors you wouldn't, might expect right away.

Uh, some manufacturing, uh, construction and really a broad swath of under other industries as well.

But.

I'd say the largest share so far, we've seen, uh, in, um, hospitality, tourism, jobs, uh, leisure and hospitality, uh, followed by a retail trade, then healthcare and social assistance.

Well, that certainly makes sense given the fact that we're all staying home these days, a lot of people are wondering when that extra $600 will start appearing in those unemployment checks.

Is there any kind of a timeline on that?

We're just about to get guidance from the department of labor on how that will be administered.

Um, but i would say, um, hopefully by the end of this week, uh, we will have guidance and how that will be distributed.

Uh, but people won't need to do anything.

Additional, uh, that'll just be added to their current unemployment insurance claim.

Um, for those that are all , given the strange times that we're in, are there any other, uh, changes in house on a applies or b stays on unemployment when there are so few places actually hiring right now?

Well.

We really encourage people to go online.

M, we're trying to leave those phone lines open so people can go to oregon.gov forward slash employer and also what we're really encouraging folks to do, we have a video, so you can see, um.

Step-by-step, how to apply for unemployment insurance, um, related to layoffs related to how the coven pandemic has affected the economy.

So, um, we have a special section, um, therefore cove unrelated questions encourage people to try to answer questions online.

We have a frequently asked question page.

Um, so, uh, try everything you can to get all the information you need and to apply online first to keep those phone lines open for those that we have to reach back to.