By Oregon Employment Department, Benton County had Oregon’s lowest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in February at 2.9 percent. Grant County (7.2%) registered the highest rate for the month. Fourteen of Oregon’s counties had unemployment rates at or below the statewide rate of 4.0 percent and 22 counties were below the […]

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden Oregon, Press Release Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., along with senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee Representative Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.,  introduced three pieces of legislation to preserve the integrity of state marijuana laws and provide a path for responsible federal […]

by Deidra Krys-Rusoff Senior Vice President Ferguson Wellman, A leading Oregon financial firm The Week in Review March 31, 2017 — Most markets, international stocks and the U.S. Dollar ended the week near where they started. Stocks are quietly ending a strong first quarter, with this week leaving the S&P […]

By Josh Lehner Oregon Office of Economic Analysis Blog Happy Friday! In the showdown you didn’t know you wanted but now glad you have, Oregon’s alcohol cluster has added more jobs than the state’s software industry since the start of the Great Recession. This edition of the Graph of the […]

Barran Liebman Oregon Law Firm By Paula Barran The U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Justice issued a guidance formally withdrawing two recent Department of Education guidances on transgender students’ rights. The guidances had been issued in 2015 and 2016 and addressed the position that laws prohibiting discrimination […]

Sixty-one people died on the job in Oregon during 2016, according to a preliminary report issued today by the Department of Consumer and Business Services (DCBS). That’s up from 2015’s figure of 41 deaths. The numbers are based on a new data collection program, begun in 2015, that is designed […]

Bullard Law, Portland law firm 9th Circuit Says Hugging May Create Sexually Hostile Workplace The Ninth Circuit held that hugging “can create a hostile or abusive workplace, when ‘[i]t is . . . unwelcome and pervasive.’”  Further, the appellate court held that the plaintiff, a county correctional officer, could proceed […]

By Ethisphere Institute Schnitzer Steel Industries, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCHN) has been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, as a 2017 World’s Most Ethical Company®. Recognition honors those companies who lead with integrity and align principle with action. Schnitzer […]

National Retail Federation News Release, With Congress poised to take up legislation that could repeal landmark debit card swipe fee reforms that took effect half a decade ago, banks and the card industry have been busy spreading claims that retailers have failed to share the savings with consumers. But a […]

Bullard Law, Portland law firm Employers in Oregon could be required to pay employees for up to four hours of unworked time if an employee’s shift is cancelled or shortened.  Additionally, some large employers may be required to engage in an “interactive process” with regard to employees’ scheduling concerns.  The […]