May 15, 2020 3:35 a.m.
During the week of May 3rd to May 9th, the Oregon Employment Department received 14,100 initial claims for unemployment benefits.
An OED release said they have received 396,000 initial claims since COVID-19 business closures began in March.
The release said 86 percent of initial claims for regular unemployment benefits received between March 15th and May 9th have been processed. For each of the past five weeks, more claims for regular benefits have been processed than received in Oregon.
The release said the record-level claims processing by the Employment Department continues to help communities across Oregon as the economy transitions to reopening. If measured by dollars paid, unemployment insurance would now be the largest paying subsector in the Oregon economy. By comparison, unemployment benefits would have ranked 37th by payroll prior to the COVID-19 closures.
Still, tens of thousands of unemployment claims remain unprocessed, some have been waiting for benefits for six to seven weeks. The agency continues expanding its capacity, with a new contact center open, and a total of 690 employees processing claims. Claims processing continues seven days per week. The Employment Department also continues to make thousands of call-backs every day to Oregonians who need to have their claims processed, according to the release.