Columnist Pamela Ferrara examines the latest local economic data to explain where Salem stands as prices continue to be high while employment has nearly fully recovered from Covid.
Pamela Ferrara - Special to the Salem Reporter
COLUMN: American women still doing the bulk of household work, latest Census finds
Columnist Pamela Ferrara dives into the relatively low labor force participation of U.S. women compared to women in other industrialized countries.
COLUMN: The pandemic shut-down hit low-wage workers and minorities the hardest
A graph showing the percent change in the Salem area’s private sector employment from Februay 2020. (Source: Oregon Employment Department) The pandemic-related shutdown of the economy will go into the record books with a lot of “firsts” and we’ve just seen another one. The unemployment rate in the Salem area[Read More…]
COLUMN: Unemployment rate dips slightly, but low-wage workers continue to be hardest hit
A graph showing the percentage of total U.S. employment in goods producing and service producing industries from 1950 to 2018. (Courtesy/ Oregon Employment Department) The good news for Salem’s economy is that the unemployment rate has come down from 13.2 percent in April to 12.7 percent in May. The not-so-good[Read More…]