Darlene Hooley: “Right now, Oregon has 7.7 percent unemployment, the highest in the country. Since January, 2001, the State has lost over…”

“Right now, Oregon has 7.7 percent unemployment, the highest in the country. Since January, 2001, the State has lost over 50,000 jobs. These are hard-working men and women, not statistics. They are real people with real lives and families, and right now they are facing the prospect of not having enough money to put food on the table or enough money to pay for their medical bills if someone should get sick. I have talked to people who are unemployed. They have sold their homes trying to live off the profit. They said, I do not know what is going to happen when this money runs out. Unemployment benefits are supposed to be a safety net to get you from one job to the next job. They do not provide 100 percent of the person's previous salaries, but those benefits are absolutely vital for families to make ends meet. They are not out there not going to work because they want to. They are out there because they cannot find a job. Not only do these benefits provide a level of security for families, unemployment benefits are also stimulants for the economy. For every dollar we spend in unemployment benefits, we put $1.73 back into the economy.”