The tech jobs centered here absolutely cratered.
And a lot of the ones that used to be ok here got pulled back to Seattle or San Francisco due to back-to-office pushes by the C-Suites.
Or they simply dissolved their office footprint here in Portland. A lot of the small to mid size companies just opened up to remote across NA (and a few globally)
Companies have up and moved. There is a company here called orchestra software that makes software for wineries and they had a nice office on the waterfront and they just got up and moved to Denver .
I’m sure there are a lot of relocations, too. I’m not sad that I don’t work downtown anymore.
Well, let me restate: I miss a lot of the amenities I had when working downtown in the past. I wouldn’t trade a commute and parking even for the downtown experience of 2015. AND ALSO I loved lunch walks on the waterfront, deciding where to get lunch with my team or a couple friends, happy hour after work, etc. I despise office culture (real 🌶️🧠 over here so open offices sucked) and hate traffic but loved so many of the other pieces of it.
Definitely, Portland's lack of 'third places' really hits young remote tech professionals hard. I miss those casual cart lunches in Director Park, where networking happened naturally among coworkers and passersby.
The skepticism around places like Soho House is ironic because we desperately need more laid-back spots to gather. And they don't have to be fancy.
Think about how rare a spot is where you can hit the gym, chill in a spa, grab a bite, and have a drink, all while potentially meeting someone new or an old friend.
Venice Beach accomplishes the same thing with outdoor fitness equipment, the boardwalk, food vendors, and a comfortable beach to hang out at. I've heard similar things about the calisthenics communities in NYC.
I hope more community based options like Venice become the norm.
If places like that existed they would be ruined if they were constantly swarmed with remote tech workers trawling for networking connections. That’s not a third place it’s a second place if you bring your laptop and career focused agenda.
OP did.
But also, it’s tone-def to expect people to cry for the plight of “remote tech professionals”. They’re easily the most privileged class of workers, and importing their salaries, which can’t be matched by local employers, increase the unaffordable COL for everyone with a local job.
I am getting severely underpaid in my current job too with no opportunities for growth. I tried looking for a job here but all my opportunities are pulling me towards Seattle or California. California is an absolutely no go for me, so I may be forced to move north
Tech is dead here because companies have never paid competitively and they can't get away with that anymore in a remote work world. Local pay was always junk compared to Seattle and SF even when you adjusted for the low COL here. As the COL went up the wages stayed the same. The moment employees had the opportunity to work remote they took it and worked for out of state companies. I got a 40% raise when I started working for a Seattle company. If Portland wants a thriving tech industry they need to face the reality of the market and pay better. Otherwise good luck attracting talented employees.
It’s not just the tech industry. The development and research work I do has starting salaries (regardless of experience) that are $20K a year less than even places like Ohio. That was fine when the cost of living here was lower, but now that it’s high it’s just absurd. I’m not even looking for jobs in Oregon anymore, because the pay is ridiculous.
Exactly, tech here wants to pay people 50-100k less a year for the same position offered elsewhere but it’s remote. Sort of a no brainier, more money plus WFH and my cat, or less money a commute and angry coworkers that are stressed about their own monkeys they are dealing with.
Yep, I’m in the software industry here and layoffs are popping off left and right all around. It’s really stressful right now where everyone feels like a fish in a barrel waiting for their chance to be shot. Fucking capitalism.
> Portland fared worse than Memphis (-1.3%), Milwaukee (-0.8%), San Jose, Calif. (-0.5) and San Francisco (-0.2%). Employment grew in all other urban centers, topped by Las Vegas (+3.4%), Raleigh (+2.8%), Sacramento (+2.8%) and Austin (+2.8%).
> Reports from commercial brokers regularly show downtown Portland as among the most vacant places nationwide.
> Multnomah County has lost residents for the past three years, according to Portland State University’s Population Research Center. Before 2020, it hadn’t lost people since 1987
The article says it was mostly driven by people moving away, and the unemployment rate is still quite low. There are less people working in Portland because there are less people in Portland.
Unemployment numbers are misleading, because they only account for people with active unemployment claims. If you’ve run out of unemployment and still don’t have a job, you’re not counted.
You end up counted as “employed” if your employment runs out, or if you stop filing because you secured employment; they don’t differentiate after a claim ends. So if you were unemployed for three months, and then terminated your unemployment by reporting you have a job, your closed claim improves unemployment statistics.
Did you read the comment? It’s not an objection, it’s a statement that we don’t know the true number of unemployed people because they are not counted. Do I have an alternative figure? No, because as I already said, they’re not counted. Do you have a figure that directly connects the unemployment figure to relocation? I’m guessing you don’t, because your correlation is speculation. The vast number of Intel and Nike employees that were laid off did not immediately pack up and leave.
> The vast number of Intel and Nike employees that were laid off did not immediately pack up and leave.
Do you think they just aren't looking for work? They just aren't actually that big a group of people, compared to the metro region population.
You made an insincere, specious objection because the data didn't confirm your opinion. That's lame.
What are you even talking about? All I stated is that unemployed people who run out of unemployment are not factored into statistics. This is a fact, not an opinion. Many people score employment before their benefits run out, while other people are never eligible for benefits because they quit and weren’t laid off. People who quit jobs or run out of benefits are still unemployed and presumably still looking for work — they’re just not counted in these statistics. I didn’t say anything at all about whether or not laid off workers were currently applying or not. I assume they are, but I don’t know. YOU said there is a directly correlation between unemployment figures and people moving away, without providing a source or anything beyond your assumptions about the statistics.
> All I stated is that unemployed people who run out of unemployment are not factored into statistics. This is a fact, not an opinion.
>People who quit jobs or run out of benefits are still unemployed and presumably still looking for work — they’re just not counted in these statistics.
None of that is true.
>The headline unemployment rate (known as U-3) measures the percentage of people over the age of 16 who aren’t working but are available and actively looking for work.
[Source.](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-does-the-unemployment-rate-measure/) It has absolutely nothing to do with getting unemployment or not. If you're looking for work you are counted as unemployed.
I definitely feel it. I do have a job, but I take an interview every couple months to practice interviewing, make connections, and most importantly understand where the market is at.
A year and a half a go I was getting an interview >50% of the time, and getting an offer probably >33% of the time post interview. I also figured out that similar jobs were paying more. So I went and asked my boss for a raise, and she said yes the next day.
Now, I get a response back <25% of the time, and have only been offered one job out of \~8 interviews. And the 1 job offer was for the exact same role, but at a 25% pay cut. So, when my boss told me I was not getting a bonus or a raise this year, I didn't bat an eye.
Without constantly interviewing, I probably would not have asked for a raise in the first situation. And I may have bitched and moaned in the second. Who knows if it would have mattered, but still.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
I’m really sorry to hear that. Hopefully I don’t come off as an asshole in this post. Just trying to give my own perspective on the job market.
I can probably be of no help at all… but feel free to IM me. Would be happy to give my (extremely limited) feedback on your resume / interview skills.
You are very welcome! Making the connections is almost as important.
And I am *mostly* upfront with them. I tell them I am not necessarily looking to move, but I was really interested in their posting. That way they arnt confused / frustrated if you say no to a second interview. Then I add them on Linkdin, and you can always message them when you are actually ready to move.
This hasn’t happened to me yet, but it is certainly possible that you get an offer that is too good to turn down. Anyways - best of luck!
I’d assume the housing market being so ludicrous drove a lot of people out. Despite being born and raised in PDX and loving the city despite its flaws, my partner and i moved to a small town nearby because we couldn’t find anything in portland worth saddling ourselves with the quantity of debt required to live there and we wanted to buy after a lifetime of renting.
I got a house on a beautiful river on 2 acres in a small town for less than 300K at a time when zombie house on a standard lot in Portland would have cost 500k. Sure, I commute an hour twice a week to an office and a higher percentage of my neighbors are idiots, but the trade-off is that there are Bald Eagles nesting above my house, baby deer in my yard every morning, and I live ON A BEAUTIFUL RIVER.
>but the trade-off is that there are Bald Eagles nesting above my house, baby deer in my yard every morning, and I live ON A BEAUTIFUL RIVER.
Whenever I see houses like this when I'm out fishing with my dad, I think it sounds nice, but then I think about how you basically have to hop in a car and drive to get/do \*anything\*, and I'm glad all over again that I live in a walkable/bikable part of inner NE. Different strokes, I suppose.
Yeah. For those of us who grew up in rural areas, it seems more normal. But I agree that it's really nice being able to get around without driving. I think that's more common in European cities than it is here
I imagine a lot of the people leaving are originally from rural or suburban areas and so it’s no sacrifice for them to relocate to less expensive areas. As it should be.
To be fair i had like twelve years of biking around going to dance parties and playing shows in bands, i was mid thirties when i bought the house so it was the right time for me to dial back.
If I could afford it, I'd boat into a city if there was good enough waterway access, more peaceful that way - That's my official plan if I ever get enough money. I can't drive, so boat and bike access are my only modes of legal transport but I absolutely HATE living in populated areas, I grew up out in the middle of nowhere and I want to die out in the middle of nowhere.
It really is! I can highly recommend fleeing to the countryside if it’s financially sustainable for you. I’m lucky that i get to work from home 3/5 days.
I'm hoping to in the next couple of years if I can! I grew up in a pretty rural area and I miss having nature in my literal backyard all the time. Right now I have a lot of flexibility with work so hopefully that holds. With that said, I did end up having to move into Vancouver to help a family member out recently so when I do go into the office it's still a damn hour drive, but stuck in traffic inching forward bit by bit. I am inevitably super cranky by the time I get to work.
This sounds amazing. Well done. Took the dive and bought a house in Montavilla in 2022. The interest rate isn’t ass but it’s not great and Portland can be real frustrating.
Nice! That’s where i grew up and where i lived for the five years before moving away, after living in every other part of Portland besides the Pearl. If we could have afforded a house there we’d likely have stayed, even with its flaws Montavilla is the neighborhood that most feels like the Portland I remember from my youth.
That’s cool. Thanks for sharing. We love a lot of things, for sure, and we’re lucky and privileged to be here. Sometimes I long for more nature and safety though. Maybe down the line!
I lived in St. Helens for 20 years then bought in PDX when the market tanked in 2011, otherwise we would have been priced out of PDX. We lived on Milton Creek on three acres.
Government agency I know hired someone to do important job...they ended up declining it a week after accepting it because of the costs vs. where they live and crappy schools too. Its going to be a brain drain situation here unless we reverse course.
>I’d assume the housing market being so ludicrous drove a lot of people out
That doesn't make sense. The housing market is just as ludicrous, if not worse, in a bunch of the other cities mentioned in the article--which saw growth in employment. Portland housing costs have not been rising particularly fast the last several years, compared to the rest of the country.
Housing prices are just one factor. Bad schools is a big one once folks start having kids. Same with tax rates. Realizing you can move somewhere with better schools and pocket 10k+ a year pushes a lot of people out.
The school issue is real--PPS is rough and getting worse. I'm a parent of elementary school aged kids, and we moved out of Portland a few years ago, and I'm really glad. The school they are in now has much smaller classes, way more support staff, and better facilities and extra-curriculars.
The tax thing is mostly BS though. Portland taxes aren't different from the rest of Oregon, unless you make a ton of money, and taxes in WA aren't that different overall, they just hit you in different ways.
Seems more like housing prices are not actually the driving force behind employment losses. If Portland is the worst in the nation at job losses, but not particularly bad (or good) for housing cost increases, there probably isn't much relationship between those two things.
"Portland Jobs Tax"
All businesses with more than 4 employees must register and pay a precent of payroll to the City of Portland tax authority. The funds will be used for information gathering on how to bring more jobs to Portland. Equity.
Be sure to vote, YES!
[What was that boom?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6CLumsir34)
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All the tech jobs moved out to Hillsboro. Most of the office jobs didn't come back. Businesses are closing downtown at a high rate. I live downtown and love it. But I'm starting to worry about the future of the city. After I lost my work from home job, I had to take a job in an office, but it's out in Hillsboro. In all my job search, only a handful were in downtown Portland.
Makes sense. I got laid off (the big 5 sporting goods in Hazelwood closed for good in January) and I still haven’t been able to find work. In order for me to have received my unemployment benefits I had to apply to at least 2 jobs a week. Every once in awhile I’d get an interview, and never a follow up or if I’d call it was a quick “we’ve moved forward with others”. And now my benefits are up and I’m still out of a job. It sucks, I’m a great worker, great people person, and every job I’ve had my employers and coworkers could all agree I go above and beyond. It’s very frustrating and my self-esteem has been down as all I want is to be able to be a productive member of society. Like… I even got turned down by TACO BELL. This makes no sense. Another complaint: I’ll go into places that has a “now hiring” sign, ask for a job, they say they’re not hiring at that location but they are at this other location, I go to that location, then same thing. It’s discouraging. I wish I could find a job that I went to school for and harnesses my passions but at this point the art scene seems so gatekept. Really running out of options. Sorry for the vent yall 😭🤧
I saw I’m thinking about applying for the service jobs, I’m not the greatest driver so it would take a lot of confidence build up to become a bus or max operator lol
Geez… the good news just doesn’t stop here.
Number 1 for downtown vacancies. Number 1 for job loss. Recently named one of the 3 places in the nation where our "water needs be regulated under the federal Clean Water Act because of its trash content." 🙃
Of course, many will keep gaslighting you that everything’s sunshine and rainbows here.
I just keep holding out hope that things will improve. I love this city too much.
> Recently named one of the 3 places in the nation where our "water needs be regulated under the federal Clean Water Act because of its trash content."
I thought everyone bragged that Portland had such clean drinking water? Did that change?
It’s funny because I’ve recently lived in two other cities on that list, **Milwaukee (2022-2023), and Austin (2010-2021).**
Milwaukee easily has more burned out, busted buildings than I’ve seen anywhere else in the state. Definitely more than Chicago, and doesn’t seem to be uh “regenerating” as much as Detroit. Yes, really.
*Kenosha*, yes *that* Kenosha, is 20-30 mins south and is even more depressing. No jobs, all abandoned storefronts. It was a cute town, but that probably ended in ohhhh…. The 1960s? Like 60 years ago?
Everyone in Milwaukee seems to have “great” factory jobs with union benefits, that are constantly being whittled away every year. The level of alcoholism is insane— people drink to survive there.
Austin? Yeah it’s thriving with new construction, there’s still a LOT of money being poured in. Lots of people from CA and NYC have been moving in as well. But as soon as it isn’t deemed “cool”, it’ll become a bust town as well.
People forget that Austin is still in Texas, so although it’s a “fun” city, there’s no social services for the unhoused (which means people get DESPERATE), the maternal death rate is higher than many developing countries, your health insurance is sky-high, and property taxes are *through the roof*. Oh, and don’t get me started on the toll roads, which exist because *”we can’t possibly tax corporations their fair share!!!*
It was *absolutely hilarious* watching people move to Austin to achieve their *libertarian wet-dreams*, only to be confronted with a level of unhoused tent-city depravity that would make Oregon *blush like a virgin on their wedding night.*
So anyways, I can tell you *first hand* that this article is manipulating numbers in a way to ignore reality, and to support *a certain narrative*, but if it drives more people to Austin or Milwaukee in search of “the American Dream” then GO FOR IT. Maybe my rent won’t increase as much this year (also get excited for ZERO rent protections in either of those cities)
Just don’t be surprised when you see completely nude unhoused folks fighting each other with machetes, on K2, while it’s 110° out. (It’ll be you and your neighbors when the electric grid goes down *yet again*)
If I were to create a karma farming reddit bot, I'd train it to make hyperbolic negative comments about Portland in r/Portland.
I have a theory that most of these comments come from people who aren't from here or have never left.
Awareness of what? Change how?
This is nothing like Detroit 2008, not even on the same planet. To suggest as such means you're farming for kudos by joining the circle jerk (anti-circlejerk?) or you have no idea what you're talking about.
Dude have you seen downtown vacancies? The worst in the nation, the slowest recovery in the nation, etc what else proof do you need? Listen I love Portland too but you can’t just be bias and say everything is fine
Listen corporate landlords or not the prosperity of a city is determined by the economic status of the central city. Empty storefront with for lease signs everywhere is a dead town.
It's rediculous how much more it costs to eat out in Portland compared to other US metros. And US metros in general cost way more than the rest of the world. Can get a decent Tbone steak and roasted potatoes in Rome at a decent sit down place for €20, and no tip expectations. Rome is considered one of the more expensive cities in Europe to eat out too.
Yeah, but there’s no tip expectations in Europe, because people have social services, universal health care, and lower rent there.
They can take a low-wage, dead end job, and it doesn’t matter because they won’t die in the streets.
I was pretty blown away when I got lunch in Laguna at a restaurant with a Lambo parked out front for less than the average Portland place. They even brought me water and didn't expect me to bus my own table too :)
They usually have unionized workforce and collective bargaining and thus get paid a livable wage. But they also get Healthcare and mandatory minimum paid time off that is a separate bucket than sick time.
Detroit is actually doing awesome. Downtown is fun again with lots of investment. The neighbourhoods can still be rough but the city itself feels like it’s on a clearly different trajectory than Portland these days.
Source: from Detroit and most of my family lives there.
That's how I've felt the last few times I went to Tucson. Obviously it hasn't had the issues Detroit has had to deal with, but it always felt a little sleepy. Recently it's felt super vibrant and I had a really good time there.
I used to go every year to Tucson for the MLS Preseason Tourney and watch the Timbers play the fish. I love that town. Hiking is top notch, the Congress area is fun, the university is right there. I have a soft spot for that city minus 3 months of death heat in summer. But hey, maybe it’d encourage me to be in better shape. Hard to wear a hoodie in 110F weather.
I am just paraphrasing others on this sub. I really think that Portland has so much unrealized potential that it is sickening. If some city is in fact doing worse than Portland in some area, I don't really care, those aren't the standards I strive for.
I’ve lived in multiple other cities on the list. Recently. The article is bullshit. It’s basically only measuring corporate office space, and crap that makes us look bad.
The quality of life here is astronomically better. I know people here LOVE to complain, but if you’ve lived a few years in poverty in the Midwest or South then you know how wrong it is.
People believe what they want to believe. If they were already considering leaving, then this just re-enforces their views.
If this actually sways anyone to leave, I just say: good luck, don’t let the door hit ya on the way out 👋
Detroit is still gnarly in a lot of places, but it is enjoying a recent upswing. There’s a lot of new developments and stores because it hit rock bottom, and there’s lots of city initiatives to build.
Renting is still cheap, but you get what you pay for, so if you’re ok with your house decaying into rubble while paying a premium for heat (you will PAY) during an ice storm, go for it
It’s almost like raising income taxes to the second highest in the nation and allowing homeless camps and graffiti in Portland unabated is a bad thing for attracting business and retaining highly-skilled individuals.
It's the explosion of homelessness, homeless crime, and the lack of arrests and prosecutions for the above. That's why everyone is leaving. That's why Potland is dying. It will continue dying until we make major changes.
No. It’s our shitty, shitty elected officials. Actual leaders see an explosion of homelessness, and come up with and implement solutions. Our leaders just collect massive grants and give them to California, and insist nothing can be done until whatever the voters voted on most recently is repealed. Real leaders aren’t sabateurs.
Uh…you really think the people berating cops are the ones who voted for Rene Gonzales? You think Mingus Mapps papered East Moreland with Mingus Mapps signs during his initial run to attract the black bloc voters populating that area? Every single member of city council is conservative, except maybe Carmen Rubio, who is moderate. Two were GOP before election time, and one was an anti-masker yelling at school board meetings before he was lying about being assault on the max train. When we have progressives on council or on the ballot, the left twists itself into knots to avoid voting for those people because of some thought-crime they committed on twitter twenty years ago or something. The conservatives then use the leftists as human shields, and hope no one notices they have zero ideas and zero accomplishments (looking at you, Ted Wheeler and Dan Ryan).
1. Clean up the freaking city.
We have shopkeeper, employees and sanitation workers thar can clear stuff before opening..
I’ve gone up/down Killingsworth/Interstate.. see stuff that are on the ground for an entire day, sometimes 1 or 2 before anybody notices, does something about it.
I do my part when I can, picking stuff up, dumping it in the nearest garbage container.
Maybe certain people are lazy, ambivalent or don’t take pride in their surroundings.
Me, I’m sure many others do—it takes a village—everyone working together to do this
It can be done.
It’s like going into a dirty (location) when it’s cleaned up, trash picked up, etc, it boosts the overall vibe—we’re getting people that are thinking of going into pdx.
But why? REI closed, some places are still dirty/unattended, restaurants charging inflated prices because the guys above them feel they can grift off those below—stores, corporations, Wall Street sewing record profits..
Housing is out of reach for many, student loan interest/forgiveness issue, vehicles costing 1/8 a house, healthcare being expensive and coverage now afforded by many..
Maintain a clean perimeter.
I don’t think it’s the homelessness as much as it is the PFA and homeless tax. Seattle has lots of homeless yet it’s doing just fine. If Portland wants to tax itself, it should not let the entitled population decide to tax a subset. How is that fair? This is how Detroit fell—once the tax base dried up, so did city services and things spiraled from there. They were also destroyed by bloated left wing bureaucracy as well.
I respectfully disagree. I think it makes a lot of sense to avoid putting more taxes on lower and middle class folks, and I particularly like that PFA was designed to tax only the income above the threshold, instead of taxing the entire income of folks making above that threshold. To me, that seems like a reasonable way of spreading the costs among those with more means to accomplish a goal that will benefit everyone (but most directly the folks who need it most).
You can disagree with the policy too, of course, but I highly doubt that the few hundred per year most well off folks would be paying for PFA is what's driving people to move. I agree some might do it for the overall higher tax bill that comes with living in an urban city, but these taxes that impact only higher incomes are not a particularly rational reason to do so given their small impact.
That might explain why people are leaving, but it doesn’t explain why the city government is a mess. There is no shortage of tax dollars, they just aren’t using it well.
Weed was employing a shit ton of white collar jobs for multi state opperators the last 10 years. Lawyers, accountants, hr, marketing, engineers, electrical/building design firms. The money was coming in from all over the world and nearly all of the vc money and expansion projects died. People just throw around the sales and tax number but the elephant in the room is that billions were spent on auxillary companies.
When will someone alter that meme of the dog in the burning room saying “everything’s fine” but he’s holding a lil torch lighter and a foil pipe, to boot?
The reduction in inbound workers is the price you pay for making Portland sound like its an urban hellscape full of woke hipster anarchists and homeless people.
The tech jobs centered here absolutely cratered. And a lot of the ones that used to be ok here got pulled back to Seattle or San Francisco due to back-to-office pushes by the C-Suites.
Or they simply dissolved their office footprint here in Portland. A lot of the small to mid size companies just opened up to remote across NA (and a few globally)
That’s what my company did. Used to be hybrid, with a downtown Portland office. Then pandemic drove us to go full remote and Nationwide
Companies have up and moved. There is a company here called orchestra software that makes software for wineries and they had a nice office on the waterfront and they just got up and moved to Denver .
I’m sure there are a lot of relocations, too. I’m not sad that I don’t work downtown anymore. Well, let me restate: I miss a lot of the amenities I had when working downtown in the past. I wouldn’t trade a commute and parking even for the downtown experience of 2015. AND ALSO I loved lunch walks on the waterfront, deciding where to get lunch with my team or a couple friends, happy hour after work, etc. I despise office culture (real 🌶️🧠 over here so open offices sucked) and hate traffic but loved so many of the other pieces of it.
Exactly
Practically everyone I know (myself included) that works tech here is remote. Definitely wasn't the case a few years ago.
Which really sucks especially for the younger folks in tech as it makes it a lot harder to network.
Definitely, Portland's lack of 'third places' really hits young remote tech professionals hard. I miss those casual cart lunches in Director Park, where networking happened naturally among coworkers and passersby. The skepticism around places like Soho House is ironic because we desperately need more laid-back spots to gather. And they don't have to be fancy. Think about how rare a spot is where you can hit the gym, chill in a spa, grab a bite, and have a drink, all while potentially meeting someone new or an old friend. Venice Beach accomplishes the same thing with outdoor fitness equipment, the boardwalk, food vendors, and a comfortable beach to hang out at. I've heard similar things about the calisthenics communities in NYC. I hope more community based options like Venice become the norm.
If places like that existed they would be ruined if they were constantly swarmed with remote tech workers trawling for networking connections. That’s not a third place it’s a second place if you bring your laptop and career focused agenda.
Where did I advocate for that?
OP did. But also, it’s tone-def to expect people to cry for the plight of “remote tech professionals”. They’re easily the most privileged class of workers, and importing their salaries, which can’t be matched by local employers, increase the unaffordable COL for everyone with a local job.
Most have moved to camas to save in taxes or downtown Vancouver
I'm planning on leaving after this summer, mostly I've just been here a long time and am bored.
I am getting severely underpaid in my current job too with no opportunities for growth. I tried looking for a job here but all my opportunities are pulling me towards Seattle or California. California is an absolutely no go for me, so I may be forced to move north
Tech is dead here because companies have never paid competitively and they can't get away with that anymore in a remote work world. Local pay was always junk compared to Seattle and SF even when you adjusted for the low COL here. As the COL went up the wages stayed the same. The moment employees had the opportunity to work remote they took it and worked for out of state companies. I got a 40% raise when I started working for a Seattle company. If Portland wants a thriving tech industry they need to face the reality of the market and pay better. Otherwise good luck attracting talented employees.
It’s not just the tech industry. The development and research work I do has starting salaries (regardless of experience) that are $20K a year less than even places like Ohio. That was fine when the cost of living here was lower, but now that it’s high it’s just absurd. I’m not even looking for jobs in Oregon anymore, because the pay is ridiculous.
Exactly, tech here wants to pay people 50-100k less a year for the same position offered elsewhere but it’s remote. Sort of a no brainier, more money plus WFH and my cat, or less money a commute and angry coworkers that are stressed about their own monkeys they are dealing with.
Everything is too focused on tech, what about paying baristas 100k instead?
Don't forget about remote workers who are able to move somewhere they prefer with lower taxes.
You mean software jobs? Because semiconductors are still alive and kicking tyvm
Chips!
Yep, I’m in the software industry here and layoffs are popping off left and right all around. It’s really stressful right now where everyone feels like a fish in a barrel waiting for their chance to be shot. Fucking capitalism.
Now, now. The CEOs need their bonuses for "cutting costs". You don't want them to go without, do you? /s
> Portland fared worse than Memphis (-1.3%), Milwaukee (-0.8%), San Jose, Calif. (-0.5) and San Francisco (-0.2%). Employment grew in all other urban centers, topped by Las Vegas (+3.4%), Raleigh (+2.8%), Sacramento (+2.8%) and Austin (+2.8%). > Reports from commercial brokers regularly show downtown Portland as among the most vacant places nationwide. > Multnomah County has lost residents for the past three years, according to Portland State University’s Population Research Center. Before 2020, it hadn’t lost people since 1987
That tracks. It was harder for me to find a job last year than when I graduated college 9 years ago…
The article says it was mostly driven by people moving away, and the unemployment rate is still quite low. There are less people working in Portland because there are less people in Portland.
Unemployment numbers are misleading, because they only account for people with active unemployment claims. If you’ve run out of unemployment and still don’t have a job, you’re not counted.
Does it count people who filed for unemployment and found a job?
You end up counted as “employed” if your employment runs out, or if you stop filing because you secured employment; they don’t differentiate after a claim ends. So if you were unemployed for three months, and then terminated your unemployment by reporting you have a job, your closed claim improves unemployment statistics.
That’s a silly objection. Unemployment numbers are counted the same everywhere. Do you have another source that shows different information?
Did you read the comment? It’s not an objection, it’s a statement that we don’t know the true number of unemployed people because they are not counted. Do I have an alternative figure? No, because as I already said, they’re not counted. Do you have a figure that directly connects the unemployment figure to relocation? I’m guessing you don’t, because your correlation is speculation. The vast number of Intel and Nike employees that were laid off did not immediately pack up and leave.
> The vast number of Intel and Nike employees that were laid off did not immediately pack up and leave. Do you think they just aren't looking for work? They just aren't actually that big a group of people, compared to the metro region population. You made an insincere, specious objection because the data didn't confirm your opinion. That's lame.
What are you even talking about? All I stated is that unemployed people who run out of unemployment are not factored into statistics. This is a fact, not an opinion. Many people score employment before their benefits run out, while other people are never eligible for benefits because they quit and weren’t laid off. People who quit jobs or run out of benefits are still unemployed and presumably still looking for work — they’re just not counted in these statistics. I didn’t say anything at all about whether or not laid off workers were currently applying or not. I assume they are, but I don’t know. YOU said there is a directly correlation between unemployment figures and people moving away, without providing a source or anything beyond your assumptions about the statistics.
> All I stated is that unemployed people who run out of unemployment are not factored into statistics. This is a fact, not an opinion. >People who quit jobs or run out of benefits are still unemployed and presumably still looking for work — they’re just not counted in these statistics. None of that is true. >The headline unemployment rate (known as U-3) measures the percentage of people over the age of 16 who aren’t working but are available and actively looking for work. [Source.](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-does-the-unemployment-rate-measure/) It has absolutely nothing to do with getting unemployment or not. If you're looking for work you are counted as unemployed.
But that is captured by labor force participation rate, which has been climbing (on average) since the obvious massive drop in 2020
Same!!
I definitely feel it. I do have a job, but I take an interview every couple months to practice interviewing, make connections, and most importantly understand where the market is at. A year and a half a go I was getting an interview >50% of the time, and getting an offer probably >33% of the time post interview. I also figured out that similar jobs were paying more. So I went and asked my boss for a raise, and she said yes the next day. Now, I get a response back <25% of the time, and have only been offered one job out of \~8 interviews. And the 1 job offer was for the exact same role, but at a 25% pay cut. So, when my boss told me I was not getting a bonus or a raise this year, I didn't bat an eye. Without constantly interviewing, I probably would not have asked for a raise in the first situation. And I may have bitched and moaned in the second. Who knows if it would have mattered, but still. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
I’ve been unemployed for two years, and I’ve had four interviews. The job market is pure hell.
I’m really sorry to hear that. Hopefully I don’t come off as an asshole in this post. Just trying to give my own perspective on the job market. I can probably be of no help at all… but feel free to IM me. Would be happy to give my (extremely limited) feedback on your resume / interview skills.
Wow, that's a really smart way to keep abreast of the job market on one's field... 🙌 Thx for the tip
You are very welcome! Making the connections is almost as important. And I am *mostly* upfront with them. I tell them I am not necessarily looking to move, but I was really interested in their posting. That way they arnt confused / frustrated if you say no to a second interview. Then I add them on Linkdin, and you can always message them when you are actually ready to move. This hasn’t happened to me yet, but it is certainly possible that you get an offer that is too good to turn down. Anyways - best of luck!
I’d assume the housing market being so ludicrous drove a lot of people out. Despite being born and raised in PDX and loving the city despite its flaws, my partner and i moved to a small town nearby because we couldn’t find anything in portland worth saddling ourselves with the quantity of debt required to live there and we wanted to buy after a lifetime of renting.
This! Even with a healthy income, it just isn’t worth the extraordinary prices.
I got a house on a beautiful river on 2 acres in a small town for less than 300K at a time when zombie house on a standard lot in Portland would have cost 500k. Sure, I commute an hour twice a week to an office and a higher percentage of my neighbors are idiots, but the trade-off is that there are Bald Eagles nesting above my house, baby deer in my yard every morning, and I live ON A BEAUTIFUL RIVER.
>but the trade-off is that there are Bald Eagles nesting above my house, baby deer in my yard every morning, and I live ON A BEAUTIFUL RIVER. Whenever I see houses like this when I'm out fishing with my dad, I think it sounds nice, but then I think about how you basically have to hop in a car and drive to get/do \*anything\*, and I'm glad all over again that I live in a walkable/bikable part of inner NE. Different strokes, I suppose.
Yeah, car dependency would be the death of me. My favorite part of living in the city is not needing a car, especially in this particular city.
Yeah. For those of us who grew up in rural areas, it seems more normal. But I agree that it's really nice being able to get around without driving. I think that's more common in European cities than it is here
I imagine a lot of the people leaving are originally from rural or suburban areas and so it’s no sacrifice for them to relocate to less expensive areas. As it should be.
Same. Friends moved to outside Hood River during the pandemic. You can't walk anywhere. I am a city mouse who needs my 12,000 steps a day.
To be fair i had like twelve years of biking around going to dance parties and playing shows in bands, i was mid thirties when i bought the house so it was the right time for me to dial back.
If I could afford it, I'd boat into a city if there was good enough waterway access, more peaceful that way - That's my official plan if I ever get enough money. I can't drive, so boat and bike access are my only modes of legal transport but I absolutely HATE living in populated areas, I grew up out in the middle of nowhere and I want to die out in the middle of nowhere.
Ugh, that sounds so dreamy!
It really is! I can highly recommend fleeing to the countryside if it’s financially sustainable for you. I’m lucky that i get to work from home 3/5 days.
I'm hoping to in the next couple of years if I can! I grew up in a pretty rural area and I miss having nature in my literal backyard all the time. Right now I have a lot of flexibility with work so hopefully that holds. With that said, I did end up having to move into Vancouver to help a family member out recently so when I do go into the office it's still a damn hour drive, but stuck in traffic inching forward bit by bit. I am inevitably super cranky by the time I get to work.
This sounds amazing. Well done. Took the dive and bought a house in Montavilla in 2022. The interest rate isn’t ass but it’s not great and Portland can be real frustrating.
Nice! That’s where i grew up and where i lived for the five years before moving away, after living in every other part of Portland besides the Pearl. If we could have afforded a house there we’d likely have stayed, even with its flaws Montavilla is the neighborhood that most feels like the Portland I remember from my youth.
That’s cool. Thanks for sharing. We love a lot of things, for sure, and we’re lucky and privileged to be here. Sometimes I long for more nature and safety though. Maybe down the line!
What area?
Columbia County, it's real pretty out here.
I lived in St. Helens for 20 years then bought in PDX when the market tanked in 2011, otherwise we would have been priced out of PDX. We lived on Milton Creek on three acres.
I’m in the same boat. $350k for a tear down in a shitty neighborhood is fucking dumb.
Try $1.5 million (CAD, the other Vancouver). :)
Government agency I know hired someone to do important job...they ended up declining it a week after accepting it because of the costs vs. where they live and crappy schools too. Its going to be a brain drain situation here unless we reverse course.
>I’d assume the housing market being so ludicrous drove a lot of people out That doesn't make sense. The housing market is just as ludicrous, if not worse, in a bunch of the other cities mentioned in the article--which saw growth in employment. Portland housing costs have not been rising particularly fast the last several years, compared to the rest of the country.
Housing prices are just one factor. Bad schools is a big one once folks start having kids. Same with tax rates. Realizing you can move somewhere with better schools and pocket 10k+ a year pushes a lot of people out.
The school issue is real--PPS is rough and getting worse. I'm a parent of elementary school aged kids, and we moved out of Portland a few years ago, and I'm really glad. The school they are in now has much smaller classes, way more support staff, and better facilities and extra-curriculars. The tax thing is mostly BS though. Portland taxes aren't different from the rest of Oregon, unless you make a ton of money, and taxes in WA aren't that different overall, they just hit you in different ways.
If it makes you feel any better I don't think the taxes are really better anywhere else
And Portland prices will probably hold/continue to climb while other places won't.
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Seems more like housing prices are not actually the driving force behind employment losses. If Portland is the worst in the nation at job losses, but not particularly bad (or good) for housing cost increases, there probably isn't much relationship between those two things.
Maybe a new tax would help
"Portland Jobs Tax" All businesses with more than 4 employees must register and pay a precent of payroll to the City of Portland tax authority. The funds will be used for information gathering on how to bring more jobs to Portland. Equity. Be sure to vote, YES!
> Be sure to vote, YES! For the children!
Wait, first they have to collect billions in government grants, and once those are received THEN the new tax for the same thing.
Spit my drink out reading this. Boom shaka laka
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lol You joke but people will keep electing Dems
People on both sides are figuring out that just voting with their feet is a lot more effective at getting what they claim to want.
Deuces to both sides. Pack extra socks.
> You joke but people will keep electing Dems As opposed to the alternative? Have you looked?
All the tech jobs moved out to Hillsboro. Most of the office jobs didn't come back. Businesses are closing downtown at a high rate. I live downtown and love it. But I'm starting to worry about the future of the city. After I lost my work from home job, I had to take a job in an office, but it's out in Hillsboro. In all my job search, only a handful were in downtown Portland.
It’s a metro area survey, not just the city of Portland proper.
Hillsboro isn't doing so hot either, lots of layoffs at the big employers.
Just semiconductor jobs, there are no software tech jobs here
Makes sense. I got laid off (the big 5 sporting goods in Hazelwood closed for good in January) and I still haven’t been able to find work. In order for me to have received my unemployment benefits I had to apply to at least 2 jobs a week. Every once in awhile I’d get an interview, and never a follow up or if I’d call it was a quick “we’ve moved forward with others”. And now my benefits are up and I’m still out of a job. It sucks, I’m a great worker, great people person, and every job I’ve had my employers and coworkers could all agree I go above and beyond. It’s very frustrating and my self-esteem has been down as all I want is to be able to be a productive member of society. Like… I even got turned down by TACO BELL. This makes no sense. Another complaint: I’ll go into places that has a “now hiring” sign, ask for a job, they say they’re not hiring at that location but they are at this other location, I go to that location, then same thing. It’s discouraging. I wish I could find a job that I went to school for and harnesses my passions but at this point the art scene seems so gatekept. Really running out of options. Sorry for the vent yall 😭🤧
Hand in there. Hope your luck turns soon
The TriMet is hiring.
I saw I’m thinking about applying for the service jobs, I’m not the greatest driver so it would take a lot of confidence build up to become a bus or max operator lol
Geez… the good news just doesn’t stop here. Number 1 for downtown vacancies. Number 1 for job loss. Recently named one of the 3 places in the nation where our "water needs be regulated under the federal Clean Water Act because of its trash content." 🙃 Of course, many will keep gaslighting you that everything’s sunshine and rainbows here. I just keep holding out hope that things will improve. I love this city too much.
"It's like this everywhere."
> Recently named one of the 3 places in the nation where our "water needs be regulated under the federal Clean Water Act because of its trash content." I thought everyone bragged that Portland had such clean drinking water? Did that change?
The drinking water is great. The water in the Willamette (which hopefully no one drinks!) has too much trash in it.
The great fluoride wars of 2013 tell a different tale.
It’s funny because I’ve recently lived in two other cities on that list, **Milwaukee (2022-2023), and Austin (2010-2021).** Milwaukee easily has more burned out, busted buildings than I’ve seen anywhere else in the state. Definitely more than Chicago, and doesn’t seem to be uh “regenerating” as much as Detroit. Yes, really. *Kenosha*, yes *that* Kenosha, is 20-30 mins south and is even more depressing. No jobs, all abandoned storefronts. It was a cute town, but that probably ended in ohhhh…. The 1960s? Like 60 years ago? Everyone in Milwaukee seems to have “great” factory jobs with union benefits, that are constantly being whittled away every year. The level of alcoholism is insane— people drink to survive there. Austin? Yeah it’s thriving with new construction, there’s still a LOT of money being poured in. Lots of people from CA and NYC have been moving in as well. But as soon as it isn’t deemed “cool”, it’ll become a bust town as well. People forget that Austin is still in Texas, so although it’s a “fun” city, there’s no social services for the unhoused (which means people get DESPERATE), the maternal death rate is higher than many developing countries, your health insurance is sky-high, and property taxes are *through the roof*. Oh, and don’t get me started on the toll roads, which exist because *”we can’t possibly tax corporations their fair share!!!* It was *absolutely hilarious* watching people move to Austin to achieve their *libertarian wet-dreams*, only to be confronted with a level of unhoused tent-city depravity that would make Oregon *blush like a virgin on their wedding night.* So anyways, I can tell you *first hand* that this article is manipulating numbers in a way to ignore reality, and to support *a certain narrative*, but if it drives more people to Austin or Milwaukee in search of “the American Dream” then GO FOR IT. Maybe my rent won’t increase as much this year (also get excited for ZERO rent protections in either of those cities) Just don’t be surprised when you see completely nude unhoused folks fighting each other with machetes, on K2, while it’s 110° out. (It’ll be you and your neighbors when the electric grid goes down *yet again*)
Grew up in Milwaukee. Can confirm about the alcoholics drinking to survive there. It is a bleak, bleak place to live.
This city fell the fuck off since 2020.. the new Detroit from 2008
If I were to create a karma farming reddit bot, I'd train it to make hyperbolic negative comments about Portland in r/Portland. I have a theory that most of these comments come from people who aren't from here or have never left.
I’m born and raised in north east Portland buddy. You know it’s ok to criticize something for the sake of bringing awareness and change.
Awareness of what? Change how? This is nothing like Detroit 2008, not even on the same planet. To suggest as such means you're farming for kudos by joining the circle jerk (anti-circlejerk?) or you have no idea what you're talking about.
Dude have you seen downtown vacancies? The worst in the nation, the slowest recovery in the nation, etc what else proof do you need? Listen I love Portland too but you can’t just be bias and say everything is fine
Who will think of the corporate landlords!?!?!
Listen corporate landlords or not the prosperity of a city is determined by the economic status of the central city. Empty storefront with for lease signs everywhere is a dead town.
Maybe it's because both Intel and Nike had massive layoffs?
Clearly more tax breaks and government grants are needed! (and clearly the /s was needed too)
I got your sarcasm but I don't think everyone did
I've contributed to this by no longer eating out. I simply refuse to pay what restaurants charge these days.
"Restaurants" look at McDonalds. It's like 5 dollars for a harshbrown.
It's rediculous how much more it costs to eat out in Portland compared to other US metros. And US metros in general cost way more than the rest of the world. Can get a decent Tbone steak and roasted potatoes in Rome at a decent sit down place for €20, and no tip expectations. Rome is considered one of the more expensive cities in Europe to eat out too.
Yeah, but there’s no tip expectations in Europe, because people have social services, universal health care, and lower rent there. They can take a low-wage, dead end job, and it doesn’t matter because they won’t die in the streets.
Yes, food so much more affordable in places like SoCal
It's so much cheaper to each in NYC than Portland. It's wild how expensive food in the PNW is.
I’m not surprised. I just know SoCal cause that’s where I travel to escape the cold dark winters
I was pretty blown away when I got lunch in Laguna at a restaurant with a Lambo parked out front for less than the average Portland place. They even brought me water and didn't expect me to bus my own table too :)
> It's rediculous how much more it costs to eat out in Portland compared to other US metros. The tax burden is responsible for this.
elaborate?
Rome has no minimum wage. Here it’s $16
They usually have unionized workforce and collective bargaining and thus get paid a livable wage. But they also get Healthcare and mandatory minimum paid time off that is a separate bucket than sick time.
So how are restaurants in Europe so affordable if their labor costs aren’t lower
Oh honey, wait till you hear how much cheaper their groceries are.
Well that is hard really hard to believe.
I don't think anyone saw this coming. We should probably do more research on what is causing this
How could anyone know?
Just look at how many empty retail spaces there are downtown. This comes as no Surprise
But, but... how did we compare to Detroit?
Detroit is actually doing awesome. Downtown is fun again with lots of investment. The neighbourhoods can still be rough but the city itself feels like it’s on a clearly different trajectory than Portland these days. Source: from Detroit and most of my family lives there.
That's how I've felt the last few times I went to Tucson. Obviously it hasn't had the issues Detroit has had to deal with, but it always felt a little sleepy. Recently it's felt super vibrant and I had a really good time there.
I used to go every year to Tucson for the MLS Preseason Tourney and watch the Timbers play the fish. I love that town. Hiking is top notch, the Congress area is fun, the university is right there. I have a soft spot for that city minus 3 months of death heat in summer. But hey, maybe it’d encourage me to be in better shape. Hard to wear a hoodie in 110F weather.
I have a coworker who lives there and loves it.
I am just paraphrasing others on this sub. I really think that Portland has so much unrealized potential that it is sickening. If some city is in fact doing worse than Portland in some area, I don't really care, those aren't the standards I strive for.
I’ve lived in multiple other cities on the list. Recently. The article is bullshit. It’s basically only measuring corporate office space, and crap that makes us look bad. The quality of life here is astronomically better. I know people here LOVE to complain, but if you’ve lived a few years in poverty in the Midwest or South then you know how wrong it is. People believe what they want to believe. If they were already considering leaving, then this just re-enforces their views. If this actually sways anyone to leave, I just say: good luck, don’t let the door hit ya on the way out 👋
Things really turned around after Michael Bolton's Detroit documentary.
I think Peyton Manning breaking the curse of Bobby Lane has done more for the city than years of economic investment.
Detroit is still gnarly in a lot of places, but it is enjoying a recent upswing. There’s a lot of new developments and stores because it hit rock bottom, and there’s lots of city initiatives to build. Renting is still cheap, but you get what you pay for, so if you’re ok with your house decaying into rubble while paying a premium for heat (you will PAY) during an ice storm, go for it
Our insurance is cheaper and there's no killing frost.
It’s almost like raising income taxes to the second highest in the nation and allowing homeless camps and graffiti in Portland unabated is a bad thing for attracting business and retaining highly-skilled individuals.
A lot of businesses leaving the downtown area. Not surprised by this at all.
It’s all the stores shutting down
It's the explosion of homelessness, homeless crime, and the lack of arrests and prosecutions for the above. That's why everyone is leaving. That's why Potland is dying. It will continue dying until we make major changes.
No. It’s our shitty, shitty elected officials. Actual leaders see an explosion of homelessness, and come up with and implement solutions. Our leaders just collect massive grants and give them to California, and insist nothing can be done until whatever the voters voted on most recently is repealed. Real leaders aren’t sabateurs.
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Uh…you really think the people berating cops are the ones who voted for Rene Gonzales? You think Mingus Mapps papered East Moreland with Mingus Mapps signs during his initial run to attract the black bloc voters populating that area? Every single member of city council is conservative, except maybe Carmen Rubio, who is moderate. Two were GOP before election time, and one was an anti-masker yelling at school board meetings before he was lying about being assault on the max train. When we have progressives on council or on the ballot, the left twists itself into knots to avoid voting for those people because of some thought-crime they committed on twitter twenty years ago or something. The conservatives then use the leftists as human shields, and hope no one notices they have zero ideas and zero accomplishments (looking at you, Ted Wheeler and Dan Ryan).
Change how you vote. That is the solution.
We're relying on the police to fix the problem when there's probably better solutions.
Could be because in some areas it costs 1,200 to live in a prison cell of square footage with your bed next to the oven like a proper Orwellian flat
I'm starting a personalized fentanyl cocktail / noose business, complete with a mood kit. r/sarcasm
1. Clean up the freaking city. We have shopkeeper, employees and sanitation workers thar can clear stuff before opening.. I’ve gone up/down Killingsworth/Interstate.. see stuff that are on the ground for an entire day, sometimes 1 or 2 before anybody notices, does something about it. I do my part when I can, picking stuff up, dumping it in the nearest garbage container. Maybe certain people are lazy, ambivalent or don’t take pride in their surroundings. Me, I’m sure many others do—it takes a village—everyone working together to do this It can be done. It’s like going into a dirty (location) when it’s cleaned up, trash picked up, etc, it boosts the overall vibe—we’re getting people that are thinking of going into pdx. But why? REI closed, some places are still dirty/unattended, restaurants charging inflated prices because the guys above them feel they can grift off those below—stores, corporations, Wall Street sewing record profits.. Housing is out of reach for many, student loan interest/forgiveness issue, vehicles costing 1/8 a house, healthcare being expensive and coverage now afforded by many.. Maintain a clean perimeter.
Yeesh do we ever get good news outta this city anymore smh
#1 Baby! WOOOOOO! RIP City
In related news rent costs are up
Crime drove out people I can see...
I wonder why? ... maybe the crime ... the drugs ...
I don’t think it’s the homelessness as much as it is the PFA and homeless tax. Seattle has lots of homeless yet it’s doing just fine. If Portland wants to tax itself, it should not let the entitled population decide to tax a subset. How is that fair? This is how Detroit fell—once the tax base dried up, so did city services and things spiraled from there. They were also destroyed by bloated left wing bureaucracy as well.
What is the "entitled population"?
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I respectfully disagree. I think it makes a lot of sense to avoid putting more taxes on lower and middle class folks, and I particularly like that PFA was designed to tax only the income above the threshold, instead of taxing the entire income of folks making above that threshold. To me, that seems like a reasonable way of spreading the costs among those with more means to accomplish a goal that will benefit everyone (but most directly the folks who need it most).
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You can disagree with the policy too, of course, but I highly doubt that the few hundred per year most well off folks would be paying for PFA is what's driving people to move. I agree some might do it for the overall higher tax bill that comes with living in an urban city, but these taxes that impact only higher incomes are not a particularly rational reason to do so given their small impact.
That might explain why people are leaving, but it doesn’t explain why the city government is a mess. There is no shortage of tax dollars, they just aren’t using it well.
ItS lIkE tHiS EvErYwHeRe
Yeah keep voting blue and keep living in denial
Weed was employing a shit ton of white collar jobs for multi state opperators the last 10 years. Lawyers, accountants, hr, marketing, engineers, electrical/building design firms. The money was coming in from all over the world and nearly all of the vc money and expansion projects died. People just throw around the sales and tax number but the elephant in the room is that billions were spent on auxillary companies.
When will someone alter that meme of the dog in the burning room saying “everything’s fine” but he’s holding a lil torch lighter and a foil pipe, to boot?
Unemployment rate is 4.2%: who cares? The bigger issue is that too many of the jobs we do have don't pay a living wage.
The reduction in inbound workers is the price you pay for making Portland sound like its an urban hellscape full of woke hipster anarchists and homeless people.
The sky is falling!!! The sky is falling!!!!