By NFIB, In an otherwise dismal year for Oregon’s small-business owners, 2022 will open with some good news for them—their UI taxes will be lower. “The Employment Department has good news for Oregon employers contributing to the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Trust Fund,” said the department in a news release. “Oregon […]

By Congressman Peter DeFazio, Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Representative Anna G. Eshoo (CA-18), senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Representative Peter DeFazio (OR-04), chair of the House Committee on Transportation & […]

By Oregon Employment department, November 2021 Employment and Unemployment in Oregon’s Counties In November 2021, 35 of Oregon’s 36 counties experienced over-the-month decreases in their unemployment rates. Seventeen counties experienced a 0.3 percentage point decrease or more over the month including Baker, Clackamas, Clatsop, Coos, Crook, Curry, Gilliam, Klamath, Multnomah, […]

By Oregon Small Business Association Foundation, A ransomware attack on McMenamins may have compromised the names, social security numbers, and bank information of 2,700 employees at the family-owned hospitality business. However, the bank information of customers appears to be safe. The Dec. 12 cyberattack left the Pacific Northwest chain of […]

By Christine M. Zinter Bullard Law NW Law firm Late Friday evening, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in a surprise opinion, dissolved the injunction placed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to block OSHA’s COVID-19 vaccination and testing emergency temporary standard (ETS). […]

By US Senator Ron Wyden, Press Release U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., called on the Biden Administration to sanction four mercenary hacking corporations under the Global Magnitsky Act, for enabling human rights violations by authoritarian regimes. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory […]

By National Federation of Independent Business, A net 59% of small business owners increased prices, the highest level since 1979 WASHINGTON, D.C. (Dec. 14, 2021) – The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index increased slightly in November by 0.2 points to 98.4. Four of the 10 Index components improved, four declined, […]

By Oregon U.S. Attorney, Oregon Dentist Faces Federal Charges for Stealing Nearly $8 Million in COVID-Relief Program Funds PORTLAND, Ore.—A federal criminal complaint was unsealed today charging an Oregon dentist with fraudulently converting to his personal use nearly $8 million in loans intended to help small businesses during the COVID-19 […]

By Josh Lehner, Oregon office of Economic Analysis, First, Kanhaiya Vaidya, the state demographer in our office, crunched some of the 2020 ACS microdata data for poverty rates by race and ethnicity. In a less diverse state we know the sample sizes can be small and the data noisy, even […]

How Employers Should Approach the Federal Vaccine Mandates that are Held Up in Courts By Amy Angel & Bruce Garrett Barran Liebman Law Firm In the past few months, we have covered the three major federal vaccine mandates that apply to employers locally and across the country: an OSHA ETS, […]