Portland is one of the largest cities that has no sales tax By Oregon Tax News, A recent report released by the Washington D.C. based Tax Foundation, shows how major metropolitan cities compare with sales tax.  Portland and Anchorage, Alaska have the title of the largest cities in the country […]

August Oregon Ad Watch By Oregon Small Business Association, Two full-page advertisements stood out in the month of August for the state’s largest newspaper. First, Wal-Mart placed a full-page ad going head-to-head with Office Depot by listing 16 school items by price comparison.   The key sell was highlighting the 45% […]

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Magazine business poll. 47.1% — Government spending 39.7% — Unemployment rate/overall health of the economy 3.5% — Energy and the environment 2.2% — National security 2.9% — Social issues 4.6% — Other

Latest state economic forecast and impacts of Measures 66 & 67 By Economist Dr. Eric Fruits, Econinternational This is a “told you so” story about Measures 66 & 67 … In December 2009, Randall Pozdena and I published research forecasting the impacts of Measures 66 and 67 on Oregon employment […]

By Tony Wendel Oregon Employment Department In Oregon, the union membership rate – the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of a union – rose slightly from 16.6 percent in 2008 to 17.0 percent in 2009. The rate increased even though the number of wage and salary […]

“This Onerous Provision Will Cost Jobs.” A Good Letter Urging Repeal of New 1099 Rules By Joseph M. Wallin Davis, Wright, Tremaine LLP NW law firm Many, many business groups and writers have come out against the new 1099 rules which were contained in section 9006 of the “Patient Protection […]

By Oregon Small Business Association, Kantar Media shows where ad spending has increased and decreased in select industry markets.   The time represents from Jan-May 2009 period and compares ti to Jan-May for 2010.   Government has been increasing while travel has been decreasing. (Data source is Kantar Media.  Chart by OSBA).

Surprise! Wall Street Reform Bill Contains Massive New Affirmative Action Requirements Written by Wayne D. Landsverk Miller Nash LLP, Oregon and Washington Law Firm With all the media attention given to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, there was almost no mention of a far-reaching provision (Section […]

Workplace Regulations Are On The Way By Tom Donohue, President and CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce 1.  The Employee Free Choice Act 2  Labor Dept. rules for employers justifying worker classifcation 3.  New OHSA plan forcing employers to track injuries 4.  Federal agencies to union-only labor agreements The Employee Free […]

More Than One-Third of Employers Use Social Media to Promote Their Organizations New CareerBuilder Survey — One-quarter of companies leverage social media to recruit and research potential employees– — Twenty-nine percent of companies with 500 or fewer employees utilize social media– — More than half of leisure and hospitality organizations […]