In One Oregon City, Jobless Residents Ask, 'What Recovery?'
By SARAH KERSHAW

Published: November 17, 2003

ALBANY, Ore., Nov. 14 ? Gloria Hunt has heard the news, all about the nation's apparent economic recovery, about the thousands of new jobs, the upturn, the rosier outlook. Those upbeat bulletins, though, sound to Ms. Hunt like the good fortune of a distant cousin who struck it rich while the rest of the family was still dirt poor.

Economic growth has not made its way to this western Oregon city or to Ms. Hunt, 54, who has been laid off three times from three separate troubled industries ? food processing, sheet metal production and a credit card company ? since she moved here 14 years ago. Since her latest layoff, from a credit card company that filed for bankruptcy in March, Ms. Hunt has been looking for work for almost eight months.

"I've read the articles," said Ms. Hunt, who frequently attends the so-called networking sessions held twice a week at the local employment help center, which last Monday drew a record 34 jobless people. "But I haven't seen a whole lot of it here. It may be filtering down, but it's not visible at this point."

Ms. Hunt is one of thousands of jobless people in Linn County, where the unemployment rate has hovered between 8 and 10 percent for the last three years. Even as the Bush administration trumpets the national economic growth spurt of the last two months, the jobless rate here, across Oregon, in the rest of the Pacific Northwest and in several other regions has remained high, with economists saying recovery is months or even years away.