2009 February was revised downward to 10.7% from 10.8%, and March's unemployment rate shot up to 12.1%. That's stunning, but not entirely surprising, as I knew of several people that were laid off in March.
For some perspective, a year ago the unemployment rate was 5.5% in Oregon. Jumping 6.6 percentage points - 120% increase - in one year is absolutely mind-blowing.
I had thought that there was a glimmer of hope, when February's number showed a slight decline over January and December's rates, but unfortunately February proved to be temporary. There's no sugar-coating the numbers. 1 in 8 Oregonians that are able to work are unemployed, and it's a fair bet that nearly as many Oregonians are either under-employed or simply gave up and are not counted in the official employment number.
The rest of this week, we'll be seeing the rest of the West Coast states release their information for March. All eyes will be focused on California and their 16.5 million employed persons.
No comments:
Post a Comment