Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Oregon's Unemployment/Underemployment rate jumps 64%

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that last year was a disastrous year for the U.S.

Unemployment went up in all 50 states in President Obama's first year. No wonder J-O-B-S, J-O-B-S, J-O-B-S is seared in the public's mind as the number one priority.
Over the year, jobless rates increased in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The national unemployment rate fell from 10.0 percent in December to 9.7 percent in January, but was up from 7.7 percent a year earlier.
Oregon's unemployment rate for January 2010 was 10.7%--tied with Tennessee for the 11th worst unemployment rate in the nation.

That's bad news, but Oregon's unemployment/underemployment rate is an appalling 20.7%, which puts Oregon as 3rd worst state in the nation (edged out only by Michigan's 21.5% and California's 21.1%).

Oregon's unemployment/underemployment rate has jumped 64% in just a year (from 12.6% in 2008 to 20.7% in the 4th quarter of 2009).

Though one-fifth of Oregonians are suffering big time from Oregon's poor economy the Democratic legislature and governor talk of federal bailouts and pie-in-the-sky green jobs and pass taxes on business rather than doing anything substantive to help Oregon's employers and workers.

2 comments:

OregonGuy said...

You keep highlighting the bad economic news.

Oregon is, and remains, #1 in Pixie Dust Production.
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T. D. said...

Hey, OG, I'm for Pixie Dust jobs. Just waiting for them to bring down Oregon's un/underemployment rate.

Maybe we've set the Pixie Dust price too high and it's not selling as well as expected.

Alternatively, Oregon's Pixie Dust jobs might have been inadvertently exported to China (which is the beneficiary of the jobs that Gov. Deval Patrick stole from Oregon by luring Evergreen Solar from Oregon to Massachusetts).