Oregon Unemployment Rate Still 11 Percent

Hope for Oregon's economy is looking very bleak. According to this article found on Oregon Live, Oregon just added approximately 2,900 jobs in December and yet it barely puts a dent in the astonishing number of 70,000 lost jobs in 2009. The unemployment rate is still hovering around eleven percent. The few jobs that are out there have many people chasing after them. This tight economy has not only demolished jobs, but many people have experienced significant pay cuts which are causing people to pursue second jobs. Economists say that we have only added 11,800 jobs, an increase of only 0.7 percent, in the last decade. Even worse, a large part of the increase we have seen has come from the medical demands of the aging baby boomers. So once these people die, will we see more jobs being lost because of the decreased demands? The good news is economists believe that we have hit rock bottom. However, the bad news is they expect us to be stuck down here for quite some time, possibly the next decade, with only small changes.

So what is the solution? Can we really be expected to pull jobs out of thin air? Perhaps our standard of living is too high. Maybe we really do need to go green and use those available resources. Whatever the case, this is no easy fix and it sounds like the unemployment rates wont be changing anytime soon.