Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon’s unemployment rate has shot up to nine-percent – which means over 145,000 Oregonians received jobless benefits last week. 

That means the state employment office is swamped with applications for benefits, and has done a little hiring itself. Pete Springer reports.

A year ago, about 68,000 Oregonians were receiving unemployment benefits.

Now, that number has more than doubled.

To keep up, the state employment department has had to use federal money to hire new workers.

Craig Spivey is with the Employment Department.

Craig Spivey “The federal government began releasing funds early last summer to help with rising unemployment rates in different states.  And since August, we’ve been able to add 145 staff to help with claims and processing claims and getting people their unemployment.” 

The situation is similar for the state food stamp program.

That program is using federal funds to hire sixty new workers to keep up with the increased demand for food stamps in Oregon.