Unemployment benefits are running out for many jobless Oregonians

Pamplin Media Group, Sep 14, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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As Oregon officials announce the state’s unemployment rate for August Monday morning, thousands of Oregonians who have run out of their unemployment benefits will be hoping for some good news.

State employment economists will announce last month’s unemployment rate at about 11 a.m. In July, the state’s unemployment rate “held steady” at 11.9 percent since it reached that level four months earlier. That meant that about 232,782 Oregonians were unemployed in July, nearly double the number a year ago.

Last week, the state reported that about 3,000 Oregonians had come to the end of their unemployment insurance benefits, as their final extensions expired. The Oregon Employment Department reported that the rate of people running out of all extension benefits will grow to about 500 per week in the next few weeks.

Many of those people have been eligible for federal emergency unemployment compensation, which added 13 weeks of benefits to the regular 26 weeks paid by the state. They also were eligible for additional benefits from the state, extending their help for 79 weeks.

However, as of Sept. 5, the state said those who qualified at the beginning of the extension programs have exhausted all benefits. A statewide program that adds another 13 weeks of unemployment benefits adopted by the Legislature doesn’t go into effect until Oct. 4, meaning many people could be without any benefits or aid for at least a month.

In July, Oregon had the fourth-highest unemployment rate in the nation, behind Michigan, Rhode Island and Nevada. The national rate for August will be released at the end of this week.