Oregon’s workforce continues to bear the brunt of the state’s coronavirus pandemic with total layoffs nearing 300,000 in the past four weeks alone, according to extraordinary new data out Thursday morning.

More than 1 in 7 Oregon workers have lost their jobs in that stretch, including another 54,000 last week, the Oregon Employment Department reported. It is by far the sharpest downturn in the state’s history and indicates Oregon is facing deep economic devastation.

And yet the pace of layoffs eased somewhat last week. The number of new Oregon jobless claims fell by nearly a third to their lowest level since the outbreak began and the employment department revised downward the number of new claims in preceding weeks.

Oregon’s unemployment rate was just 3.3% in March. The jobless rate had spent months at a historic low during one of the state’s longest expansions in history. Now, economists say the national unemployment rate could hit 20% in April.

There is mounting evidence that the harsh measures Oregon took to contain the virus’ spread – shutting down bars, restaurants, shopping malls and large gatherings – has blunted the outbreak and sharply reduced the state’s health crisis.

The economic toll, though, has been tremendous.

Workers’ plight has been exacerbated by the employment department’s claims system, which has been unable to manage the volume of filings or adapt to recent changes in the jobless benefit program. The systems date to the 1990s and the state has been slow to update the technology, despite having money on hand for an overhaul since 2009.

So while many simple benefits applications have proceeded automatically and produced quick payments for laid-off workers, even modest complications have frequently produced errors that prevented claims from being processed.

The department paid out $97 million in benefits between April 5 and April 11, four times what it paid the prior week. But many Oregon workers have been unable to claim their share.

The department apologized last week for laid-off workers’ frustrations and delays. Despite quadrupling the number of staff taking calls and processing claims, the department is having to fix many errors manually and is struggling to keep up with the historic volume of complaints.

The employment office took more than 2,200 calls Tuesday alone, according to state data, but answered just over a third of them. Hold times exceeded two hours.

Congress has significantly expanded jobless benefits during the pandemic, making gig workers and the self-employed eligible for benefits, extending the payment period and waiving the “waiting week” before new claims are paid.

Oregon’s antiquated system has been unable to adapt to most of those changes, however. The state is still working, for example, to adjust its technology to accept claims from self-employed workers, who have yet to begin receiving payments.

And the employment department said last week it would not forgo the waiting week, despite federal funding, because its computers cannot handle the change without slowing the delivery of regular claims. That decision could cost Oregon’s laid-off workers well over $100 million in lost benefits, The Oregonian/OregonLive found.

This week, the state’s congressional delegation urged the employment department to reverse course and promise to waive the waiting week – even if it has to do so retroactively. Gov. Kate Brown has now she will comply with the delegation’s request but has set no timetable for implementing the change.

-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway |

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