Oregon's jobless rate hits 9.9%

11:57 AM PST on Thursday, February 26, 2009

By WILLIAM MCCALL, Associated Press Writer

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Oregon's unemployment rate has risen nearly another percentage point, to 9.9 percent, as the state's economy sinks faster than the nation's as a whole.

 More: Read unemployment report

The state Employment Department released the January figures Thursday. It says the unemployment rate hasn't been so high since January 1984, when it hit 10 percent.

The state agency says Oregon's unemployment rate has long been higher than the national average but now is surpassing it at a faster rate.

The total number of jobs fell by 14,600 -- about 200 more than were lost in the previous month, when the unemployment rate jumped a full percentage point, to 9 percent.

*sigh*

Because of Roy's rather specialized skills (remember they gave him an additional raise when they realized what other companies would pay for his expertise AND they were asking him to use it on two companies in their group, not just one, which is the norm in the industry) we're not worried about him at all. But at Job #1 they're letting contractors go where they can, and Job #2, the same. I'm in a bubble of sorts because of the depts. I work in, I guess. Still, it makes me feel almost guilty to send my invoice off to Job #2 - I want to say I worked fewer hours than I did, just to save him some money, but there's no way he'd allow it anyway. We actually *are* growing, and the contractors gone are on "furlough" so hopefully that means we'll see them again.

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I crack up at the typos on news graphics. Just now they told us we can hear "the governor's resonse" later in the newscast. *rolly eyes*

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The snow is gone. We just had a pretty little frosting of it.