Amid Northwest recovery … Oregon’s still toughing it out

After the Aeron chairs were packed off to the furniture liquidator, after the layoffs, after the stock options went so far under water they sprouted gills — in short, after the Puget Sound region’s tech wreck and the grinding recession it touched off — once-smug Washingtonians could still hold onto one small, cold comfort:

Things could be worse. They could be living in Oregon.

The Beaver State lost a larger percentage of its jobs than Washington, and lost them faster: Oregon’s unemployment rate soared from 4.2 percent to 9.5 percent in just 15 months. For most of the past three and a half years, Oregon’s unemployment has not only exceeded Washington’s but has topped the Lower 48 states.

By Drew DeSilver

Seattle Times business reporter

Full Story: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002130731_timeswatch26.html