From Oregon Business Report, In July, the federal minimum was set at $7.25 an hour.  Currently, Oregon has the second highest minimum wage in the nation at $8.40, just $0.15 less than Washington. Of the fifty states, thirty have no minimum wage or one that is lower than the federal […]

By Bill Conerly, Businomics, Conerly Consulting, I’ve updated my forecast for the latest GDP revision.  Key positives and negatives were laid out in this post.  Here’s how my new forecast looks: That red line is the average growth rate in recovery, assuming that second quarter was the bottom for GDP.  […]

Bullard Smith Jernstedt Wilson BULLARD eAlert 1. Oregon Military Leave Act 2. Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act: 3. Annual Labor and Employment Law Briefing– 11/14/09: On June 25, 2009, the Oregon Military Family Leave Act went into effect, requiring all public, private, and not-for-profit employers of 25 or more employees […]

Optimism Down as Small Business Owners Report Declining Revenues and Spending Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index: Score Drops 20 Points; Credit availability and cash flow also among contributing factors By Wells Fargo Bank, SAN FRANCISCO — August 3, 2009, Small business owners’ optimism recently dropped to its lowest level in […]

What Financing ObamaCare Means to Your Business By Oregon Tax News, Oregon businesses that do not provide health insurance for its workers might face up to a 10-percent payroll tax increase.  Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is working on a bill to finance ObamaCare.  Under Speaker Pelosi’s plan, America’s Affordable Health […]

PGE to Participate in Largest Electric Vehicle Project in U.S. History PGE joins eTec, state of Oregon and Nissan in five-market rollout of electric vehicles and associated charging stations: Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) welcomed news today that PGE was named a strategic participant and the state of Oregon was named […]

Timothy Duy Director, Oregon Economic Forum The UO Index dropped 0.9 percentage points in June, but the pace of the downturn over the past six months continues to lessen.  Moreover, the drop was exaggerated by falls in just two components, residential building permits and employment services payrolls.  Remaining indicators were […]

Abercrombie & Fitch, -28% Saks, -16.3% J.C. Penney, -12.3% Macy’s, -10.7% Gap,  -8% Nordstrom, -6.9% Target, -6.5% Costco,  -5% Ross Stores, + 4% (same store sales for June 2009)

Oregon Chapter, National Federation of Independent Business, SALEM, Ore., Aug. 4, 2009 – In results from a survey released today, Oregon small business owners are nearly unanimous in their opposition to the huge tax hike passed by the Legislature this year and support a referendum on them by an even […]

Christopher S. Rugaber reports, “The Commerce Department said Tuesday that consumers boosted their spending 0.4 percent in June, slightly ahead of analysts’ estimates. That comes after spending rose 0.1 percent in May.  Personal income fell 1.3 percent after rising by the same amount in May, when incomes were boosted by […]