By Oregon Employment Department, Benton County had Oregon’s lowest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate at 2.8 percent in August 2018. Other counties with some of the lowest unemployment rates in August included Hood River (3.0%), Washington (3.1%), and Wheeler (3.1%). Eastern and Southern Oregon had higher unemployment rates in August 2018, […]

By Jim Miller, Eight key provisions of the new NAFTA agreement announced this weekend, now called the ‘United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement,” or “U.S.M.C.A.,” as noted by the Wall Street Journal analysis: 1. Mexico-Canada vehicle imports: “Vehicles would need 75% North American content, compared with 62.5% currently. The shift is a win […]

U.S. Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) President and CEO David Hirschmann issued the following statement  regarding the passage of the Music Modernization Act (MMA): “The Music Modernization Act will help ensure that future music creators can pursue their passions, the music industry can […]

Oregon Brewer’s Guild, Oregon breweries claimed a total of 22 medals at the 2018 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) held September 20-22nd in Denver, Colorado. Oregon Breweries brought home 5 gold medals, 10 silver medals and 7 bronze medals.

By Oregon Employment Department, Oregon consistently outpaces the U.S. in union membership as a share of total employment. In 2017, 14.9 percent of Oregon’s workers were union members, compared with 10.7 percent for the U.S. Employees who are not union members but whose jobs are covered by union contracts slightly […]

Portland Trail Blazer Release, The Portland Trail Blazers announced a multi-year partnership agreement with Performance Health which includes the team’s first-ever jersey patch, a growing trend with world-class corporations and the NBA. Beginning with the upcoming 2018-19 season, Performance Health’s Biofreeze brand logo will find a new home on all […]

Congressmen Greg Walden Press Release, Representative Greg Walden (R-Hood River)  led a hearing before the Energy and Commerce Committee with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to seek answers as to how the social media company moderates its platforms. The hearing, entitled, “Twitter: Transparency and Accountability,” addressed concerns about Twitter’s algorithms and […]

National Retail Federation The National Retail Federation issued the following statement from Senior Vice President of Government Affairs David French in response to the National Labor Relations Board’s proposed joint employer rule. The rule would provide legal clarity surrounding business-to-business relationships and reverse the controversial Obama-era joint employer standard.

By Oregon Employment Department, The labor force consists of all residents 16 and older who are employed or who are unemployed and actively seeking work. The numbers of employed and unemployed people are determined primarily by a monthly survey of about 60,000 households nationwide, including roughly 1,000 in Oregon. To […]

Wall Street Journal Editorial, The right-thinking progressives who rule Sacramento aren’t satisfied with punishing business with high taxes and costly regulation. Now they want to dictate to shareholders the gender of whom they can elect as corporate directors. This imposition on business management passed the state Senate last month 23-9 […]