PORTLAND, Ore. — A California-based personal finance company predicts Oregon's unemployment numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic will far surpass numbers from the Great Recession between 2009 and 2012.
"A little over twice as bad," said Doug Milnes of Money Geek.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Milnes said about 10 percent of Oregon's workforce had applied for unemployment over the last five weeks.
In the greater Portland area, Money Geek predicts unemployment will peak at 27 percent, which comes out to about 356,000 people. It used national unemployment projections and data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to reach that conclusion.
That finding is the reality for many Oregonians already, including Sara Bergadine, owner and chef for the Art de Cuisine catering company in Southeast Portland.
"We were really fortunate to survive the recession...Maybe budgets got a little bit smaller— whereas this is complete shutdown," Bergadine said.“We are going to be affected through the rest of the season, and likely the rest of the year.”
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Bergadine said her company cannot cater events right now, impacting her three full-time employees and 10 other on-call staff.
Since March, she has filed numerous unemployment claims and small business loan and grant applications, without any luck.
"Haven’t even gotten the stimulus check, so nothing’s working out so far,” Bergadine said. "We’re lacking a really direct source of leadership...It’s sort of up to us as community members to talk to each other and share information that’s rapidly rolling out and changing."
Money Geek said it wants its data and resources to help people currently stuck in limbo.
"Money Geek has resources that can help you refinance your mortgage or lower your spending on insurance," Milnes explained. "Big ticket money items that if you could clear up a couple hundred dollars, could make a big difference."
