The Oregon Employment Department has received 100,700 initial claims last week, according to a release, the most claims filed yet. As businesses close to comply with Gov. Kate Brown’s stay-at-home order to slow the spread of COVID-19, 269,900 initial claims for unemployment benefits were filed in the last three weeks.
That’s more unemployment claims in three weeks than net jobs lost in the Great Recession, according to the release.
Lane County had the third largest number of claims processed last week, beaten by Multnomah and Washington County. Most claims were from the leisure and hospitality sector, which includes hotels and restaurants.
OED says it has quadrupled the number of staff dedicated to taking claims and paid $28 million in benefits to Oregonians during the week starting March 29.
Although the process for filing claims is online, the release says wait times averaged 106 minutes on claims phone lines.
There were 6.6 million claims filed nationwide last week, a decrease of 261,000 from the previous week.
Oregon's unemployment claims since 2006, as of April 9. The gray shaded section marks the Great Recession, and the huge increase in the past three weeks marks the COVID-19 pandemic. (Oregon Employment Department)