Welcome new blog authors Andre and Katharine!

In late February I wrote a touching, inspiring farewell post to all of our dear blog readers. As you might recall, I had just received a promotion and was planning to relinquish my blog duties...

But more than three months later, I still participate in either writing or editing the blog nearly every day. I guess I announced my departure a bit prematurely!

Today, however, my final adieu will be more than just "crying wolf". Within the next couple of weeks I begin an extended leave from the office so I won't be available to write any posts. More importantly, we also recently hired a couple of new economists and have started training them on how to manage the blog. You will see their names pop up very soon. By way of introduction:

New blog author number 1 is Katharine Williams. She's moving over from our Salem field office, where she provided awesome customer service to local businesses as a Workforce Analyst. Katharine has been with the department for nearly a year. Prior to landing in Oregon, she most recently hailed from the Cheese State (Wisconsin), just like Gail!

The second new author is Andre Harboe. He's imposingly tall and impressively brainy, so we all expect deep economic insights from him... or at least that he will help us win the inter-agency basketball tournament next year. (Just kidding!) Andre's work experience includes a stint with our good friends at the Office of Economic Analysis.

Gail is continuing her involvement with the blog, and we're also pulling Charlie Johnson back into the mix. You may see his name pop up a few times this month, but most of his work will be behind the scenes.

So I'd like to say WELCOME to our two new blog stars, and thanks to Charlie for his help!

And remember, starting next week, what you won't see popping up on the blog -- what I really hope you won't see -- is me. I'm off the rotation for now. Really, I'm leaving. I'm kissing the blog goodbye...