Tag SALEM ECONOMY
COLUMN: Is a low wage a living wage in Marion County?
Downtown Salem’s usually busy streets were nearly empty during the lunch hour on March 17, 2020, the first day of a statewide restaurant closure (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) Many burdens of the pandemic economy have fallen largely on the lowest-paid workers in the lowest-paying industries in…
Salem has large pockets of residents behind on utilities. New programs offer relief
Patience and social distancing are two requirements for cashing in bottles and cans at Salem’s BottleDrop centers. Customers cash in at the center on Northeast Commercial Street on Friday, May 1. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) Central and northeast Salem has more residents struggling to pay their…
With low inventory and high demand, Salem’s housing market tightens
Gladys Blum, Blum Real Estate principal broker, puts a ‘sale pending’ banner on a real estate sign on Wednesday, March 24. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) With his wife and two kids cooped up during the pandemic, Derrick McIntosh’s two-bedroom south Salem apartment had become a “walkway”…
SALEM ECONOMIC INDEX: Problems in the housing and labor market, but good news elsewhere
Handyman Jason Beals runs new computer cable at Cheers, a sports bar at 3404 Commercial St. S.E. in Salem as the business prepares on Thursday, May 14, 2020, to meet new requirements for video poker operations. Salem-area restaurants and bars remain on hold for providing…
Adapting to pandemic’s disruption, Q’s Corner Barbershop remains a community hub in Salem
Quandray Robertson, owner of Q’s Corner Barbershop, poses for a portrait in the attached boxing gym on Friday, March 12, 2020. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) A year ago, Quandray Robertson was left with a big empty space he didn’t know what to do with. Before the…
Salem Cinema reopens again. But other movie theaters remain dark
Salem Cinema will have reduced seating capacity going forward due to social distancing. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) Loretta Miles looks back at the reopening of Salem Cinema last fall as a “dress rehearsal.” Miles, who has owned the arthouse theater since 1990, will open again to…
With the clock ticking on an eviction timebomb, the Oregon Legislature considers additional protections for renters
Flags are flown at half-staff at the Oregon State Capitol on Wednesday, Feb. 24 to remember the 500,000 Americans who have died of Covid. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) Jimmy Jones, the executive director of the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency, is in a race to get…
Salem’s economic development agency plants seeds to make the region a hub for agriculture-centered tech
A NORPAC-branded truck transports frozen vegetables in Oregon. (Courtesy/Oregon Department of Agriculture) In agriculture-rich Marion and Polk counties, the local economic development agency sees fertile ground for technology. With the help of a federal grant, the Strategic Economic Development Corp. (SEDCOR) has launched the Northwest…
COLUMN: Where the good jobs in the Salem area are and how much education is needed to get them
Obtaining more education can lead to better-paying jobs and being less likely to be unemployed. (Courtesy/Oregon Employment Department) Two of every three Oregonians who had planned post-high school education last fall postponed going, according to a recent U.S. Census Bureau survey. The survey’s respondents gave…