By Dr. Eric Fruits Cascade Policy Institute Oregon is at the end of the first month of Governor Kate Brown’s state-at-home order. The order is just one of many ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic is changing the way consumers shop and the way businesses sell. These shifts in behavior, […]

By NFIB, The NFIB Research Center released a survey on the small business loan programs. Small business owners were asked about the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan on April 17, the day after the programs ran out of money. About 20% of submitted applications have been […]

This month, the Oregon Transformation Newsletter, published a series of interviews with Oregon CEOs about their efforts in the coming months to keep their workforces whole and their companies intact. We plan to publish a series of articles highlighting excerpts from those interviews: Dan Yates, CEO, The Portland Spirit If […]

By Josh Lehner Oregon Office of Economic Analysis Recessions always change the economy. Even as jobs, income, and profits return and surpass the previous peak, the underlying structure of the economy is different than it was prior to the recession. In technical terms, something like GDP fails the unit root […]

By Oregon Attorney General, As part of National Consumer Protection week (March 1—7, 2020), Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum  released the Oregon Department of Justice’s annual list of Top Ten Consumer Complaints. In 2019, the Oregon Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Section recovered more than $1.29 million for consumers and […]

By Rachel Dawson  Businesses across Oregon are laying off employees and shuttering their doors, triggered by the COVID-19 outbreak and Kate Brown’s executive order requiring social distancing and closing specified businesses. Unemployment claims jumped by around 3,200% in Oregon last week and unemployment could reach 20% in the coming months. […]

By National Federation of Independent Business, The NFIB Research Center released the following data today on the small business loan programs: The severity of economic disruptions in the small business sector is quickly increasing the immediate demand for financial assistance among small business owners. NFIB’s Small Business Economic Trends survey […]

By Josh Lehner Office of Economic Analysis The bad economic data is just now starting to roll in, helping to quantify some of the initial impacts of the coronavirus. Yesterday we got another round of initial claims for unemployment insurance from last week at both the U.S. and state level. […]

By NFIB, Comment from Anthony Smith, Oregon state director for NFIB, the nation’s leading small-business advocacy association, on today’s announced framework for reopening Oregon’s economy. “Small businesses welcome the start of a conversation surrounding the reopening of Oregon’s economy. In order to make informed decisions, small businesses need reliable information […]

By Andrew Schpak & Daniel Walker Barran Liebman Oregon Law Firm, Beginning in early March, strict social distancing measures forced numerous businesses to either curtail operations or temporarily close. Many employers chose to temporarily lay off employees with the expectation that employees would be brought back within a few weeks. […]