April 9, 2020 10:50 a.m.
In three weeks-time, the Oregon Employment Department has received 269,000 initial claims for unemployment benefits.
An OED release said by comparison, net job losses in Oregon totaled 147,800 for the duration of the Great Recession.
The release said during the week starting March 29th alone, the department received 100,700 initial claims, continuing the record levels of initial claims received the previous two weeks. The agency continues rapidly adding staff to take claims, and is processing claims at a record pace, according to the release. The federal CARES Act payments of $600 will also start processing through Oregon’s system by the end of this week.
The release said in one month’s time, the Oregon Employment Department more than quadrupled the number of staff dedicated to taking claims. Those staff continue to process record numbers of claims week after week. More claims were processed in the first three months of this year, than were processed in all of 2019.
$28 million in benefits to Oregonians were paid the week starting March 29th. That figure should increase rapidly as the additional CARES Act payments of $600 per week start for those already eligible for unemployment benefits.
The release said its critically important that all who can, file their claims online. However, the agency has also extended its contact center hours to 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekdays for filing claims by phone. Even with a rapid expansion of staff to take claims, wait times have averaged 106 minutes on claim phone lines.
The leisure and hospitality sector, which includes hotels and restaurants, continued to see the greatest number of initial claims for unemployment benefits at 14,400. That reflects the impact of measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since March 15th, there have been about 40,600 initial claims filed in that sector. Many initial claims also came from workers in health care and social assistance and in retail trade during the week of March 29th.
To file an initial claim for unemployment benefits go to https://www.oregon.gov/employ/Pages/default.aspx.