News The city of Portland's Bureau of Planning and Sustainability has released an "Economic Opportunities Analysis" that, with the help of the number-crunchers at Metro, comes to some pretty interesting conclusions about the future of the local economy.In another 23 years, for instance, Metro and the city figure Portland will boast another 147,000 new jobs. Wow! That's a lot of economic opportunities. Lucky ...   More

News Christian Kaylor, a workforce analyst with the Oregon Employment Department, has just come out with his monthly snapshot of the Portland job market. Kaylor's one-page graphic analysis (PDF) based on the latest data mixes some good news and bad news.First, the main take-away: Unemployment in the Portland metro area fell to 9.1 percent in March—still lagging the national jobless rate of 8.8 percent.Next ...   More

News Just in time for the holidays, Oregon Employment Department analyst Christian Kaylor has released his monthly update on the state of the Portland labor market. As usual, the news ain't pretty. Also true to form, Kaylor pulls out a new set of stats that sheds an interesting light on our city's job market. This month's one-page report (PDF) starts with a meat-and-potatoes update on unemployment ...   More

News Workforce analyst Christian Kaylor of the Oregon Employment Department this week rolled out his latest and always interesting update on the Portland job market. First the usual bad news: the Portland metro area still lags the rest of the country for employment. Then, like he does each month, Kaylor breaks out a set of seemingly random but interesting stats. This month it's education, ...   More

News In this clip from our interview with Gov. Ted Kulongoski, (a fuller version appears in this week's print version of WW) the ex-Marine and soon-to-be ex-governor discusses the Oregon economy and why our lack of a defense industry has come at a cost. Here are links to earlier video excerpts—one where the governor talks about prisons, another where he discusses Iraq, a third where he ...   More

Arts & Books In a move that was not entirely unexpected, Lawrence Gallery has closed its Pearl District location at 903 NW Davis St. The gallery, once a cash cow, had been suffering in the economic downturn. In a letter sent to gallery artists and clients on Friday, March 26, owners Gary and Signe Lawrence said they are closing the location “at least for now” because “the Portland gallery location has been ...   More

News Looking for any way to get out of making your mortgage payments for a year? Save Our Economy thinks it has the answer. The group is asking people who want to take a year-long break from mortgage payments to contact their lawmakers to pass federal legislation that would make the mortgage-free year a reality. The group's Jessica Burns says letting everybody stop paying their mortgages for ...   More

News The window sign now seems ironic on several levels. If the locked doors on a Friday lunch hour weren't signal enough, a manager of Twenty-Third Avenue Avenue Books confirmed this afternoon that the Northwest Portland independent bookstore is closing. "We're in the process," she said, removing several days' worth of FedEx missed-delivery stickers from the store's front door. I told her I was ...   More

News Michael Pollan , one of the loudest, funniest voices calling for a change in the way Americans eat—or rather, gorge, charmed a sold out crowd of lit lovers and foodies at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall last night at his Portland Arts & Lecture Series appearance. The author, best known for his food road trip The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals ...   More