[5]
The Month that Was: Three Things that Happened in July
By Oregon Business & Industry [6],
CNBC rankings: On July 9, CNBC released its annual America’s Top States for Business rankings [7], which saw Oregon slip to 42nd, the state’s lowest ranking in the 20-year history of the index [8]. Oregon has dropped 25 places since 2017, when it was ranked 17th. In addition to assigning an overall ranking, CNBC ranks each state in 10 categories. Oregon’s best rankings were in infrastructure (17th) and technology and innovation (18th). Its worst rankings were in cost of doing business (43rd), business friendliness (43rd) and cost of living (45th). Gov. Kotek’s Oregon’s Prosperity Roadmap [9] targets improvement in multiple CNBC rankings. Go here [10] to read OBI’s response to this year’s rankings.
Quarterly job-posting report: On July 17, OBI released the Oregon Jobs Report [11] covering the second quarter of 2026. The report, which reflects state job postings from April to June, is produced by Colorado-based Aspen Tech Labs [12], which maintains a database of more than 10 million active job postings worldwide from over 350,000 employers. The quarterly report shows, among other things, a year-over-year decline of 0.5% in state job postings compared to a 3.7% gain nationally. One bright spot is the Hermiston-Pendleton region, which has become one of the state’s fastest-growing hiring markets thanks to Amazon’s data center buildout. Read more here [13].
Oregon semiconductor report: This report was released in June, but we didn’t dig into it until July. So we’ll claim it. Prepared for Business Oregon and Oregon State University by the University of Oregon, “A Strategic Assessment of Oregon’s Semiconductor Ecosystem” [14] issues a warning that will be familiar to people who have read a 2025 report prepared for the agency by the University of Oregon. Like last year’s report, which examines the recruitment of Oregon businesses by other states [15], the semiconductor report highlights the fact that businesses with footprints in Oregon often choose to invest and expand elsewhere. As a result, other states enjoy the jobs and innovation that investment produces. Encouraging investment in Oregon will require policymakers to increase Oregon’s competitiveness. Read the full report here [14] and a good blog post by Business Oregon economist Damon Runberg here [16].