Josh Lehner Oregon Office of Economic Analysis The May forecast is fast-approaching. It is the single most important thing our office does, as it effectively sets the revenue estimates and kicker baseline for the upcoming biennium. This week and next we are meeting with our economic and revenue advisors to […]

Governor Kate Brown Announces First in a Series of Cost Savings Across State Government Governor Kate Brown announced that she is signing an Executive Order implementing a statewide hiring freeze. This is the first in a series of executive actions being taken by Governor Brown over the next several weeks […]

April 21st — First quarter earnings season kicked into high gear this week and investors were treated to a smorgasbord of blue-chip results across a range of industries. As they typically do, numbers for most companies have exceeded Wall Street expectations, but with almost 20 percent of the S&P 500 […]

Retail Sales Grew 0.3 Percent in March By Treacy Reynolds WASHINGTON – Retail sales in March increased 0.3 percent seasonally adjusted over February and 3.5 percent unadjusted year-over-year, according to calculations released today by the National Retail Federation. The numbers exclude automobiles, gasoline stations and restaurants. “Various factors were at […]

2016 Annual Numbers Press Release Posted by Brian Oregon Craft Beer by the Numbers In a Changing Craft Beer Climate, Oregon Drinkers Continue to Support Their Local Brewers   PORTLAND, Oregon — The Oregon Brewers Guild released their annual numbers report for 2016. Overall, Oregon is seeing strong growth in […]

By Oregon Employment Department, Oregon had the eighth fastest job growth among the states from January 2016 to January 2017. Adding 43,200 jobs for a growth rate of 2.4 percent, Oregon’s solid job growth was much slower than first ranked Idaho (+4.0%) and second ranked Nevada (+3.5%). Oregon’s job growth […]

Education Savings Accounts Can Help Students Without Hurting Public Schools Cascade Policy Institute, By Steve Buckstein  School choice programs allow students to choose schools or other educational resources and pay for them with a portion of the tax funding that otherwise would go to the public school assigned to them […]

by Brad Houle, CFA, Executive Vice President April 14th — For the shortened holiday week, equity markets were down by almost 1 percent as investors followed events in Russia and North Korea. Interest rates were lower with the 10-year Treasury declining in yield from 2.36 to 2.22 percent. Each quarter […]

U.S. Chamber President Congratulates Judge Gorsuch on His Confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court ‘He will undoubtedly use his gifted legal mind to help our country sort through our toughest questions for years to come,’ says Donohue WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue […]

Congressman Kurt Schrader Congressman Kurt Schrader re-introduced his Hold Congress Accountable Act (H.R.1794), which would reduce the salary of Members of Congress in the event of a government shutdown for as long as the shutdown continues. He first introduced a version of this bill in 2013 immediately following the start […]