NFIB Poll: Small Biz optimism continues to wane second month in a row By National Federation of Independent Business WASHINGTON,  – The month of April marked a second consecutive month of decline in small-business optimism; NFIB’s index dropped to 91.2 in April – a much smaller dip than the previous […]

The Great Recession Didn’t Make Health Care Bleed By Jessica Nelson Oregon Employment Department Looking for silver linings in the economy after the Great Recession, the health care industry often surfaces. Well before the Great Recession, many analysts saw health care as “recession proof,” a simplistic label the industry made […]

By Bill Conerly, Conerly Consulting, Businomics Back in January I wrote: “The economy will gradually improve over the course of 2011, which is mostly good news, but will present some challenges to business. Notably, your best employees will have opportunities at other companies. You may still be hunkered down, with […]

Four business groups announced together their list of business bills. The groups are; Associated Oregon Industries, Oregon Business Association, Oregon Business Council, and the Portland Business Alliance. Source: Value of Jobs.com Bills to spur Job Creation in Oregon(*) Strengthen Oregon’s Innovation Economy — The $18.95 million Oregon Innovation Plan investment […]

By Patrick Emerson Oregon Economics Blog This graphic from The Economist shows the fall of the Dollar (though note the recent fairly wide fluctuations). I am glad my vacationing this summer is all in the US.

Legal Update: Be Aware- SSA “No-Match” Letters Are Back. By Dunn, Carney, Allen, Higgins & Tongue With the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (“IRCA”) a new era in employer/employee relations began that made unlawful the willful or knowing hiring of illegal immigrants. IRCA requires employers […]

BBB Warns : Osama bin Laden money scams abound following death news By Better Business Bureau Oregon In the days following the death of Osama bin Laden, Better Business Bureau is warning consumers to watch out for a slew of cyber-scams that have popped up. According to Kaspersky Labs, an […]

Dan Danner President & CEO, NFIB “This is one of the worst examples of unelected bureaucrats doing the bidding of special interest groups that I’ve ever seen,” said U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham. But Graham and millions of small-business owners may be in store for even more bureaucratic muscle-flexing by the […]

James S. Chanos, president and founder of Kynikos Associates and the man who forecasted Enron’s fall a decade ago is now making a prediction on a hard fall for China’s economy. CNBC does an interview which can be seen below. On the other side, Forbes did a counter case to […]

By Tim Duy, Oregon Economic Forum The University of Oregon Index of Economic Indicators™ rose 0.7 percent to 92.0 in March 2011, the fifth consecutive monthly gain. Of the seven indicators that comprise the UO Index, four – Oregon initial unemployment claims, Oregon employment services payrolls, Oregon residential building permits, […]