Today's first article steps a little bit outside our normal employment focus to talk about the broader economy. The title of the article, "Portland area among the cities hardest hit by recession" made me think: Wow, that's sad. Could it be true?
Based on employment and income measures from a new report, Portland's rank among 150 large metro areas around the world dropped significantly during the recession, from 45th to 139th. It was one of the largest drops, hence the title of the article.
The full article provides quite a bit more information, including the changes seen in other large metro areas in the world.
The next article is also about the Portland area. This news is really, really important... to my sister: "Nordstrom Rack to open in Beaverton". The store will be located at Washington Square and is set to open in the fall of 2011. It will provide about 70 jobs. There is already a regular Nordstrom department store at the mall, so the Rack will be it's "twin". As the article points out, this will leave Salem as the only Nordstrom in the state that doesn't have a Rack nearby. (Hint, hint to the execs at Nordy's!)
Our final article is about the future of the construction industry in Oregon. According to at least one economist, the signs look good. The article shares an overview of construction changes at the national level (the U.S. lost a lot of jobs, but the losses seem to have moderated), before getting into the positive indicators for Oregon.
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