Oregon Public Broadcasting

Federal stimulus money has created the equivalent of 8000 full time jobs in Oregon so far. 

That's according to a state report released Monday.  But the new numbers are small consolation to the unemployed. 

Oregon continued to lose jobs overall last month. Salem Correspondent Chris Lehman reports.

Oregon has received about a billion dollars worth of federal stimulus money in the last seven months. 

State officials say that money helped pay for unemployment benefits and other public assistance programs like food stamps. 

About one-quarter of that billion was doled out to specific spending projects such as highway construction. 

Governor Ted Kulongoski held an event at a highway maintenance yard in Portland touting the 8000 jobs that money has created.  But he admitted the report won't make much of a dent in public perception.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski: "I believe that the average person judges the economy by two things:  One, do they have a job. And two, the unemployment rate.  That's their barometer of how the economy's going."

Oregon's unemployment rate did fall last month to 11.5 percent, but the state still lost about 10,000 jobs.  The state of Oregon has launched a new website detailing each stimulus project in the state.

Idaho and Washington officials have not released the same level of detail as Oregon on the federal stimulus spending in their states.

Online:

Oregon's Stimulus Website