For the past year, Freres Lumber has struggled to find enough employees.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the company had about 475 employees; it now has about 425. That resulted in the company cutting back its operations at the same time demand for its products has surged.
The Lyons-based company has taken on every strategy it could to hire more employees over the past year, including heavy advertising of available positions, a 10% wage increase for all employees and company-wide quarterly bonuses.
But, like a lot of companies in Oregon, the family-owned company is still struggling to find enough people to get back to its previous level of operations.
“It’s been very difficult to find employees since the start of the pandemic,” said Kyle Freres, the company’s vice president of operations. “We’ve been running close to 60% of capacity at our plywood plant just due to the lack of employees.”
With businesses in Oregon struggling to find enough employees, the state’s employment department will reinstate its previous rule requiring those seeking unemployment benefits to search for jobs.
Over a year after suspending the rule at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, about 220,000 people will have to return to seeking employment by July 31 to continue to receive benefits, including the $300 weekly boost in unemployment benefits.
Suspension of work search requirements
The state’s employment department temporarily suspended its rules regarding work searches on March 27, 2020, and made them retroactive to March 8 under guidance from the Families First Coronavirus Response Act that allowed states to modify their laws on an emergency basis.
Oregon’s unemployment rate soared to a record 14.2% in April 2020 as entire industries like hospitality shut down and others like health care and manufacturing shed employees on a temporary basis.
Record:Oregon unemployment, at 362,000, is twice that of Great Recession
The rate has slowly declined this year, dropping to 6.0% in March from 6.3% in December 2020, but is still nearly twice what it was before the pandemic.
When the CARES Act was passed in March 2020, laid-off employees were given a $600 boost in their weekly unemployment benefits and the previous requirement to be actively searching for work was suspended.
The current $300 weekly boost, which was authorized under the American Rescue Plan, runs through September.
At least 18 states including Missouri, Iowa and Alaska have said they will stop paying the boost as employers struggle to find employees. Oregon has not announced if it will do the same.
Industries in the state including restaurants and tourism that have been slowly reopening have had difficulties in finding enough employees.
“Putting work requirements on hold for more than a half million people during the crisis was the right thing to do, because these benefits provided a critical stabilizing force for families — and our economy,” Oregon Employment Department acting director David Gerstenfeld said in a statement.
“As the pandemic begins to fade and the economy changes, we are still focusing on how we can help fuel economic recovery, and help Oregonians overcome challenges related to employment.”
One of last states to reinstate job search
According to the Oregon Employment Department, the job seeking requirements will be required for those receiving unemployment under the state’s regular program and one that extends benefits. The same requirements for the self-employed are still being finalized.
To receive unemployment from the state, people will have to register with iMatchSkills, a labor exchange system the state has employed since 2004.
Taxes:People who received unemployment in 2020 and filed taxes will receive automatic refund
Oregon is one of the last states to reinstate the requirement.
States such as North Dakota reinstated the work search requirement in April and others such as Idaho and Wyoming quickly followed suit.
States such as California and Washington have yet to announce when they will resume the requirement.
The Oregon Employment Department said the first notices will go out to about 35,000, though it did not say when, and those will come with deadlines for when the authorized work search must be completed.
Prior to the pandemic, those seeking benefits were required to seek employment through WorkSource. Local offices for WorkSource will reopen July 6, but the service is offering virtual appointments before that.
Kyle Freres said his company’s efforts have resulted in retaining its current employees, but it’s still struggled finding new ones, like a lot of employers.
Hiring:Freres Lumber got a $5 million PPP loan; now it can’t find enough employees
It currently has about 60 positions open.
“I think it’s a step in the right direction,” Freres said. “There’s obviously an interest for everybody in getting people back to work. It costs the state quite a bit in administering unemployment benefits.
“There’s jobs out there. Everybody’s hiring people. I’ve seen fast food restaurants that are running curtailed hours because they can’t find enough employees.”
Bill Poehler covers Marion County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at bpoehler@statesmanjournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler
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