Congrats to Oregon! (Portland, Prineville, Donald: renters, health insurance, home)

[SyraBrian]

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Oregon's African-American unemployment rate is 7.4%, well below the national average of 8.8%! It's even ahead of Texas' 7.5%!

[StealthRabbit]

You will know why the Portland stats reflect this if you are ever a non- African American applying for a gov job, or with any of the employers trying to maintain their EEO requirements necessary to retain gov contract awards.

If you are AA and you want a job in Portland,. You're hired.

Good Stats using a low population sample community are super ez to attain. ( and manipulate to get even more gov perks!)

Portland is very white, the black minority (or whites) in Portland is not often highly motivated or desiring the issues of having to deal with demanding employment positions.

I hire lots of high skilled engineers, and I hire laborers for my construction and farming businesses. Who really wants to work when Portland caters so well to not working? Where else is there a city sponsored dignity village, and the huge homeless welcoming committee of government, police, and community?

In my TX hiring, it is hard to find enough whites to meet EEO.

It is never fun being a job creator / hiring manager. Especially on election day, when you know the vote is going to make your next year more difficult to hire, and especially difficult to sustain a profit. Seems only employees and renters vote. And they never consider the affect on their employers and landlords. When the jobs move out of state as fast as OR employers need to, and housing costs rise as much as they have in OR.... You would HOPE the voter would sense a coorelation. Not happening in PNW

[wolfdog]

Originally Posted by SyraBrian

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Oregon's African-American unemployment rate is 7.4%, well below the national average of 8.8%! It's even ahead of Texas' 7.5%!

Like being the tallest midget. WOOT!
Terrible economy for all those people Obama was supposed to help most.

[peaceloveandjulie]

I'm still in TX, was out paying bills and running errands a couple of weeks ago on a cold day and decided to stop at Subway to pick up a sandwich to take home for supper. There were two elderly homeless people outside by Subway near the road, one of them in a wheelchair and the other sitting beside her, all bundled up in blankets. I went over and asked them if I could get them some meals. The old man got a huge grin on his face and pointed to the UO Ducks sweatshirt I was wearing and said, "I'm from Oregon! But it's been a long time. I miss home."

After I got the food and went back out, we chatted for a while. The old guy was watching out for the woman, who had no legs. In talking with her, I figured out she's mentally diminished, as well. They didn't tell me how they each wound up on the street and I didn't ask but he's from Grant's Pass originally and he worked for the US Forest Service all over Oregon for a long while. Came to Texas for work and somehow fell down on his luck. Now he's homeless and stuck in Texas. I asked him if he'd like to get back to Oregon and he said he'd love to but he didn't see how he could. Gah, I felt so badly for him.

You know, I'd rather be known for being a state that was generous, that helped the homeless and gave them the benefit of the doubt than one that leaves elderly and legless people languish on the street. If there was anywhere in town that I could have taken these folks for help, I would have done so. But there are no longterm shelters and solutions for homelessness in this city. The Salvation Army does what it can and will give people a cot for a night or two here and there but they've got to pay something and be out by 7 a.m. It's not their fault -- the need is great and they lack the staff and volunteers to handle it.

What those two dear souls wouldn't have given for a tiny place in which to rest and some help.

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Originally Posted by SyraBrian

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Oregon's African-American unemployment rate is 7.4%, well below the national average of 8.8%! It's even ahead of Texas' 7.5%!

While this is good news, I can't help but wonder what this will look like as the minimum wage starts to increase. We have a very high drop out rate among our high schools and many small business people I talk to will consolidate locations and have fewer workers or simply become an owner/operator business like Seattle is shifting to.


That said, I see the state dems are considering having a separate minimum wage for high school age people. That should help a bit, if passed.

[redguard57]

Originally Posted by BLAZER PROPHET

While this is good news, I can't help but wonder what this will look like as the minimum wage starts to increase. We have a very high drop out rate among our high schools and many small business people I talk to will consolidate locations and have fewer workers or simply become an owner/operator business like Seattle is shifting to.


That said, I see the state dems are considering having a separate minimum wage for high school age people. That should help a bit, if passed.

I don't think it'll have that much of an impact, seeing as it's phased in over 6 years and tiered based on population density. To my occasional shame I frequent McDonald's now and then :0 I chatted up one of the workers at the Prineville McDonald's one time and she said that except for temps, they started most people out at $10.25, a full dollar over minimum. That was in Prineville, mind you. The wage is only going up to $12.50 in that county and not until 2022.

It might actually help the jobs situation.

If I were a fast food franchisee, if the MW increase actually became a problem, the way I'd deal with it would be to cut a few hours of the existing staff and hire a couple more part timers. None of those jobs are full time anyway, the the macro effect would be positive since there would be a couple new pt positions created. The micro effect would be minor. $30 less per week will not kill most pt FF workers and might spur them to look for better, more stable work. I worked fast food for several years back when the MW was $5.15 and well before Obamacare. The only full-time people were the assistant and store managers, and they were salaried. No hourly employees ever got close to 40.

It would take a minimum wage of $25 or higher to make the opposite happen - meaning laying off part-timers because of labor costs. Given the health insurance rules, no MW increase is worse than having to pay out health insurance premiums.

Minimum wage employees are something like 4% of the workforce - mostly contractor day-labor temp agencies, stuff like that.

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Originally Posted by redguard57

I don't think it'll have that much of an impact, seeing as it's phased in over 6 years and tiered based on population density. To my occasional shame I frequent McDonald's now and then :0 I chatted up one of the workers at the Prineville McDonald's one time and she said that except for temps, they started most people out at $10.25, a full dollar over minimum. That was in Prineville, mind you. The wage is only going up to $12.50 in that county and not until 2022.

It might actually help the jobs situation.

If I were a fast food franchisee, if the MW increase actually became a problem, the way I'd deal with it would be to cut a few hours of the existing staff and hire a couple more part timers. None of those jobs are full time anyway, the the macro effect would be positive since there would be a couple new pt positions created. The micro effect would be minor. $30 less per week will not kill most pt FF workers and might spur them to look for better, more stable work. I worked fast food for several years back when the MW was $5.15 and well before Obamacare. The only full-time people were the assistant and store managers, and they were salaried. No hourly employees ever got close to 40.

It would take a minimum wage of $25 or higher to make the opposite happen - meaning laying off part-timers because of labor costs. Given the health insurance rules, no MW increase is worse than having to pay out health insurance premiums.

Minimum wage employees are something like 4% of the workforce - mostly contractor day-labor temp agencies, stuff like that.

Overall this makes sense.


I do see fewer employees and fewer hours for them as well. Maybe not on a large scale but enough to be concerning.

[haggardhouseelf]

I'm so tired of us divvying everything up by color of skin. Black unemployment, white unemployment, "other" unemployment, whatever. Why do we still do that in 2016?

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Originally Posted by haggardhouseelf

I'm so tired of us divvying everything up by color of skin. Black unemployment, white unemployment, "other" unemployment, whatever. Why do we still do that in 2016?

If I were to guess a reason(s), it is primarily due to promotion and promulgation of racism in a way. Let me explain...


We don't look at such figures for Asians as they are the lowest unemployment rates for all ethnicities. Same for others and also for women as they are now by and large on a parity, or better, than a male, non disabled, non veteran Saltine American. Therefore, politicians seek out any ethnicities that have a higher rate of unemployment and use that to create guilt, and create costly social programs until such time as when male Saltine Americans have the highest rate of unemployment- then all the world shall be made right because while it is not the fault of male Saltine Americans that nearly every other ethnicity has a better rate of employment, it sure is for African Americans. And that's our fault 110% all the way down the line.


So if you are a male Saltine American, feel the guilt.

[haggardhouseelf]

That is interesting.... and it makes me think about the school report cards we get as well. We do count the Asians there... especially for how we test in Math!