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Oregon County-By-County Breakdown Shows the Harm of Not Extending Unemployment Insurance

If Congress fails to extend the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program more than 20,000 people in Oregon will lose their insurance coverage immediately on Dec. 28, according to the Oregon Employment Department. An additional 29,000 people in Oregon will lose their coverage in the first six months of 2014 if Republicans continue to block an extension of the program, according to Department of Labor estimates.

Federal unemployment insurance took effect in 2008 and has been reauthorized several times since as Americans continue to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Despite the real progress the economy has made since its near collapse in 2008, there are still 1.3 million fewer jobs than there were before the recession began and long-term unemployment as a percentage of the unemployed is 37 percent, near historic highs.

Failure to extend federal unemployment insurance would also hurt job growth throughout the nation, costing the economy 240,000 jobs, according to the White House Council of Economic Advisers. The CEA estimates that in Oregon alone, failing to extend the program will cost 3,829 jobs.

COUNTY

# of People Losing Coverage Dec. 28

BAKER COUNTY

64

BENTON COUNTY

204

CLACKAMAS COUNTY

1,705

CLATSOP COUNTY

146

COLUMBIA COUNTY

284

COOS COUNTY

369

CROOK COUNTY

147

CURRY COUNTY

98

DESCHUTES COUNTY

863

DOUGLAS COUNTY

569

GILLIAM COUNTY

6

GRANT COUNTY

35

HARNEY COUNTY

40

HOOD RIVER COUNTY

83

JACKSON COUNTY

1,080

JEFFERSON COUNTY

65

JOSEPHINE COUNTY

490

KLAMATH COUNTY

390

LAKE COUNTY

36

LANE COUNTY

1,604

LINCOLN COUNTY

178

LINN COUNTY

659

MALHEUR COUNTY

69

MARION COUNTY

1,490

MORROW COUNTY

29

MULTNOMAH COUNTY

3,637

OUT OF STATE(WA, ID, & CA)

826

POLK COUNTY

318

SHERMAN COUNTY

5

TILLAMOOK COUNTY

114

UMATILLA COUNTY

363

UNION COUNTY

93

WALLOWA COUNTY

25

WASCO COUNTY

121

WASHINGTON COUNTY

2,358

WHEELER COUNTY

1

YAMHILL COUNTY

482

OUT OF STATE (other states)

1,021

Total

20,067