By Oregon Small Business Association, The Oregon Employment Department has released a survey showing that nearly 70% of Oregon employers have had a difficult time filling vacancies. This is the highest level when compared over the last few years. The vacancy problems appears to be trending upwards over the past […]

By Bullard Law, Portland law firm By Michael G. McClory Gun violence is too common in the modern American workplace. The recent Umpqua Community College shootings bring the issue to the fore once again. There have been numerous other incidents in recent years and there is no reason to believe […]

By Josh Lehner Oregon Office of Economic Analysis Blog I was on OPB “Think Out Loud” on Tuesday, talking about housing, migration and the Timber Belt. One aspect we discussed was the fact Oregon had two really big wave of migrants, in the 1970s and 1990s. Below I plot annual […]

by Ralph Cole, CFA Executive Vice President of Research Ferguson Wellman, Portland This has been one of the most interesting trading weeks of the year. The seasonal pattern of the stock market is to bottom in October, and rally through the end of the year. While this doesn’t happen every […]

U.S. Chamber of Commerce The U.S. Chamber of Commerce today applauded the bipartisan cooperation between Congress and the White House as President Obama signed into law a key change to Obamacare that will ease the financial burden on many small businesses and their employees. “Small and medium sized businesses and […]

University of Oregon Regional Economic Indexes By Tim Duy Oregon Economic Forum University of  Oregon The Oregon Measure of Economic Activity retreated in August after a very strong July as employment numbers softened. Highlights of the report include: · The three-month moving average, which smooths month-to-month volatility in the measure, […]

Associated Oregon Industries Oregon’s largest business advocate by Betsy Earls After three meetings, a work group convened to discuss increasing the minimum wage is still gathering information and may have only one more meeting before the February 2016 Legislative Session. The work group, which is chaired by Senator Michael Dembrow […]

By Josh Lehner Oregon Office of Economic Analysis Blog Migration is vital to Oregon’s economic health. It is one of the two primary reasons Oregon outperforms the typical state during an economic expansion. The other being our industrial structure. In both good times and bad, Americans want to live in […]

How One Port Could Have a Big Impact on Many Oregon Businesses By Oregon NFIB, The boom of global trade in recent years has led international companies to think bigger, and that means delivering their goods to bigger ports. Unfortunately for Oregon’s businesses, that often causes them to skip out […]

By National Retail Federation, According to a new survey released today by the National Retail Federation, the majority of U.S. consumers — 62 percent — believe new credit cards being issued by banks don’t go far enough to protect card data or prevent fraud. “Consumers are worried that chip-and-signature cards […]