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Working to turn the tide.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Joe Mosley The Register-Guard

One is back in school and one has five good prospects for federal jobs. Two may eventually be called back to mill jobs. One is into his final weeks before his unemployment benefits expire.

All - apparently - remain jobless.

Three months ago, five people who had been recently displaced from their jobs spoke with The Register-Guard while visiting the Eugene office of the state Employment Department. At the time, most expressed dismay over their situations and uneasiness about their futures.

They now seem both determined and optimistic - cautiously so.

"I've just got to pray, like everyone else," says Kia Smith, a 50-year-old career civil servant with a 90 percent service-related disability and a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon in policy management.

"As Americans, we've got to ride the wave," Smith says. "This is not the first recession we've been in."

But it is one of the deepest in recent history.

When the five unemployed workers first spoke with The Register-Guard, the most recent job report from the Employment Department showed Lane County's unemployment rate had hit 9.5 percent in December.

Subsequent reports have put the county's unemployment rate at 11.8 percent in January, 12.7 percent in February and 14.1 percent in...

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