The Communications Director with the Oregon Employment Department has released a report detailing weekly new unemployment claims. During the week of March 15, the Oregon Employment Department received more than 76,500 initial claims for Unemployment Insurance benefits.
During the first three days of the week of March 22, initial claims have been tracking at record levels again. This comes as a sharp increase from 4,900 initial claims filed during the week of March 8. The Employment Department is taking several measures to meet the unprecedented need for unemployment benefits, which is largely due to reduced hours and layoffs related to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Of the 76,500 initial claims filed, the Employment Department has detailed information for the 22,800 claims processed during the week. The leisure and hospitality sector, which includes hotels and restaurants, saw the greatest number of initial claims for unemployment benefits (10,700).
These numbers reflect some of the early impact of public health and safety measures. Many initial claims also came from workers in health care (2,100) and retail trade (1,400).
