By Oregon Employment Department, Oregon’s unemployment rate dropped to a record low of 4.5 percent in March—the lowest point since comparable records began in 1976. Oregon’s February unemployment rate was 4.8 percent. A year ago, in March 2015, Oregon’s unemployment rate was 5.7 percent. With the U.S. unemployment rate at […]

By Oregon NFIB A new House bill would have opened small business up to more labor regulations and legal liabilities. Oregon’s House Business and Labor Committee recently killed a bill that would have established “familial status” as a new protected class under Oregon employment law.

Protesters interrupted a Multnomah County hearing to demand an immediate Rent Freeze law in Multnomah County. Below is a news video clip of the protest from KATU-2.

By Bullard Law, Portland law firm Merle Haggard passed away. Willie’s Roadhouse on SiriusXM spent the day remembering Haggard – with lots of music (hits and otherwise), interviews with other artists, and telephone call-ins from ordinary folks touched by Haggard’s music or by a personal encounter with him along the […]

By Oregon Employment Department, During 2015, Oregon’s private employers were looking to fill about 48,000 job vacancies at any given time, according to new annual figures from the Oregon Employment Department’s Job Vacancy Survey. The Job Vacancy Survey provides a snapshot of the labor market job seekers face.

By Josh Lehner Oregon Office of Economic Analysis Blog Over the past year, gaming revenues have clearly rebounded following an extended period of very slow to no growth in the aftermath of the Great Recession. The increases here in Oregon did coincide with the Lottery’s capital replacement program which is […]

Cascade Policy Institute The U.S. Department of Transportation announced this week that Portland is one of seven cities still in the running for a $50 million grant as part of DOT’s “Smart Cities” challenge. Portland is proposing to build “smarter streets” that talk to self-driving cars and to develop an […]

Ron Wyden Release, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., laid out a bold new vision for protecting Americans’ basic freedoms, and warned of dangerous consequences if the nation allows unchecked expansion of government surveillance. “The rapid advances in technology over the past 20 years threaten the rights of every single American more […]

By NFIB, The small business health insurance tax credit, which was highly advertised by the administration as an incentive for small business owners to purchase group health insurance plans, has been largely ineffective, the National Federation of Independent Business explained  during congressional testimony. “The high cost of health insurance is […]

By Josh Lehner Oregon Office of Economic Analysis Blog The reported lack of construction workers is one of the more interesting developments in recent years. At first blush this seems implausible.  The U.S. is still more than a million construction jobs below the housing boom peak, or about 14%. (Oregon […]