Oregon reports $24M in unemployment fraud in 2020 — less than elsewhere, but tally unfinished

The Oregon Employment Department says it has identified just over $24 million in fraudulent jobless claims paid in 2020. That’s according to a new report from the agency, its first public attempt at tallying fraud losses during the first months of the pandemic.

That total includes only fraud the department has specifically identified. The agency acknowledges total fraud losses were assuredly higher, though how much higher is unclear. The state hasn’t tallied 2021 losses yet.

Still, the employment department says Oregon’s losses appear to have been a tiny fraction of fraud reported in some other states, which estimate their own unemployment fraud losses in the billions or tens of billions of dollars. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates total unemployment fraud losses at more than $50 billion across the 50 states.

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