Unemployment Research

Jenson Hagen

The state's employment and unemployment websites have various reports to review.

Follow this link for unemployment department research
Follow this link for employment department research

There is also a link for the department of redundancy department.  There is also a link for the department of redundancy department.

The unemployment is coming from construction, manufacturing and transportation. But why is Oregon topping the nation suddenly?  For starters, the unemployment started to occur in timber jobs.  Let's not get defocused here.  Opening up more timber land is not the issue.  Since home building has come to an almost standstill nationwide, the demand for timber has definitely declined.  That has especially hit rural areas, but I have noticed more of an increase in urban areas of late.  Over the last decade, Portland has become a hub for retailers' corporate offices, such as Icebreaker.  Not sure how long they can stay afloat.  So having highly cyclical retail companies does not help either.

We are #1 in the country for the percentage of taxes derived from personal incomes.  It's kind of a self-fulfilling prophesy.  As unemployment rises, government receipts decline.  So far, state government has added jobs as reported by the employment department.  Maybe we are not adding as many gov't jobs as other states have, thus we have perhaps not compensated the real private sector unemployment as much.  Given the fact that government cuts are coming, our unemployment issues are far from over, especially considering that we have not yet addressed the bleeding of manufacturing jobs to China or other low-cost labor nations.

We are not going to get a real economic recovery until we stop sending real economic activity overseas.  Reinflating the housing market will only make things worse in the long term.  We also need to invest in new manufacturing ideas in order to replace the manufacturing that has been lost.  Still, I wish we could rewind the clock and have protected our manufacturing base more.  Too late!