[5]
The Month that Was: Three Things that Happened
By Oregon Business and Industry [6],
Each edition of Oregon Business Insider features three notable things that happened during the previous month and three things to expect in the coming month. Here’s what happened in April:
‘Best States’ ranking: Chief Executive magazine released its annual Best and Worst States for Business ranking [7], which is based on an annual survey of more than 650 CEOs, presidents and business owners from all 50 states. States that fare well in this ranking, notes Chief Executive, are those that focus “on the fundamentals – talent, infrastructure, tax and regulatory climate.” Oregon dropped two places this year to 46th, besting only Washington, Illinois, New York and California. To accompany the rankings, Chief Executive also released an analysis [8] of this year’s results. Chief Executive’s rankings are among the dozens of indicators OBI tracks on the Oregon Scorecard [9].
Public school data: The National Education Association released its annual Ranking of the States and Estimates of School Statistics report, [10] which provides state level data on public school spending. During the 2025-26 school year, Oregon will spend an estimated $18,381 per student, ranking 20th nationally [11] and just below the national average [12] expenditure of $18,870. Oregon’s estimated average public school teacher salary in 2025-26 is $83,727, ranking 9th nationally [13] and above the national average [14] of $76,552. Finally, fall public school enrollment in 2025 fell by 1% [15] to 539,644.
Quarterly jobs report: OBI released the Q1 2026 Oregon Jobs Report, produced by Colorado-based Aspen Tech Labs [16]. The report found, among other things, that Oregon job postings increased by 6.6% in Q1, though they’re down more than 10% year over year. The median full-time salary in Oregon job postings increased by 2.2% between March 2025 and March 2026. Nationally, the median salary increased twice as much – by 4.4% – during the same period. Read the full jobs report here [17].