Business
AgLife
B
Thursday, November 4, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Oregonians
quit their
jobs by the
thousands
Employers
in line
for payroll
tax cut
By MIKE ROGOWAY
The Oregonian
By PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — Oregon businesses
will have a lower payroll tax rate
for the state unemployment trust
fund in 2022.
The Employment Department
has announced that the average
rate will drop from 2.26% this
year to 1.97% starting Jan. 1, a
move from schedule 4 to schedule
3.
The change was made possible
by 2021 state legislation (House
Bill 3389), which will enable
the trust fund to continued to be
replenished from the downturn
stemming from the coronavirus
pandemic. Employers pay into the
fund, from which regular unem-
ployment benefits are drawn for
26 weeks of payments to laid-off
workers. Employees do not pay
into the fund.
Congress also approved sev-
eral rounds of federal pandemic
benefits, including self-employed
and gig workers who had never
qualified for regular benefits.
But those benefits ended around
Labor Day. These do not affect
the state fund.
The state bill was negotiated
by both parties and signed by
Gov. Kate Brown on July 27. It
will save employers an estimated
$2.2 billion over a decade.
Oregon, unlike other states,
did not borrow from the federal
government to pay unemploy-
ment benefits during the 2007-10
recession. The state does not
anticipate borrowing as a result
of the pandemic recession. Bor-
rowing by states must be repaid,
and states pass along those costs
to employers in the form of
higher taxes.
Notices of 2022 tax rates will
go out to employers starting Nov.
15.
Oregon’s schedules are
designed to provide reserves to
cover at least 18 months during
an economic downturn. The
schedules reduce taxes during a
downturn and increase during a
recovery.
Employers are assigned
a tax rate within the annual
schedule based on their “expe-
rience rating,” which hinges on
the number of former employees
who go on to draw benefits. Nor-
mally, when a significant number
of employees are laid off, an
employer’s rating goes up and its
unemployment payroll taxes go
up the following year.
The 2021 legislation still
allows replenishment of the trust
fund, but it does these other
things to lessen the effects on
employers:
• The look-back period for the
fund is extended from 10 to 20
years, and it now omits 2020 and
2021 (high-usage years for many
employers) from the calculations.
Without the changes, the state
agency would have had to incor-
porate 2020 and 2021 into its cal-
culations of trust fund targets for
the future.
• Experience ratings of
employers for 2020, set before the
onset of the pandemic and down-
turn, will shape their payroll tax
rates for 2022, 2023 and 2024.
If the agency used 2021 ratings,
their tax rates would be far higher
in most cases.
• Some employers will be able
to defer up to one-third of their
2021 payroll tax liability until
June 30, 2022, if they keep cur-
rent on payments. No penalties or
interest will be charged on those
deferred amounts.
MORE INFORMATION
Employers who do not receive notice
of the payroll tax rates by Nov. 22 are
asked to get in touch with the agency
tax section at OED_Taxinfo_User@
oregon.gov or call 503-947-1488. Due
to the projected high call volume,
employers may receive a quicker
response by emailing the department.
More information is on the agency’s
employer taxes webpage.
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Customers enter Panda Express on Island Avenue in Island City, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. The California-based Chinese restau-
rant, which opened Friday with takeout-only options, attracted a large opening crowd over the weekend.
Panda Express off to brisk start
The new restaurant’s takeout-only business is a hit
By DICK MASON
The Observer
ISLAND CITY — Do not
be fooled by the empty dining
tables, business at the new
Panda Express restaurant in
Island City is brisk.
The Chinese American fast
food restaurant opened Friday,
Oct. 29, with little fanfare, yet
it had $16,000 in sales that day
and business is remaining hot,
said Jose Ayala, the location’s
chef.
“The response of the com-
munity has been very heart-
ening,” Ayala said.
Business is strong even
though the restaurant’s opening
was not advertised extensively.
“We have been busy even
though we have taken people by
surprise,” Ayala said.
Panda Express is off to an
encouraging start even though
it currently is operating a take-
out-only business because of
the COVID-19 pandemic.
Customers can come inside
to order and pick up meals but
they cannot stay inside and eat
at its dining tables. A second
option is the restaurant’s drive-
thru, which is proving at least
as popular as its indoor service.
Ayala credits the popularity
of Panda Express to the fresh
vegetables that are an integral
part of the chain’s entrees. The
vegetables include broccoli, red
bell peppers and mushrooms.
“All of our vegetables are
fresh cut everyday,” he said.
The entrees available to cus-
tomers include black pepper
Angus steak, broccoli beef, Bei-
jing beef, mushroom chicken,
kung pao chicken, string bean
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
The brand-new construction of Island City’s Panda Express in Island City gleams
in the autumn sun on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. The Chinese food chain was founded
in 1983 and has more than 2,100 locations nationwide.
chicken and honey walnut
shrimp. Ayala said the restau-
rant’s most popular entrees
during the first week have been
the orange chicken, walnut
shrimp and broccoli beef.
Ayala knows Panda Express
well for he worked at locations
in the Tri-Cities area of Wash-
ington for the past four years.
He said there are few lulls when
working for a Panda Express
restaurant, which suits him
well.
“I like the fast pace and
intensity,” he said.
Ayala said that customer
service is always a focus of
the people working at Panda
Express restaurants.
“Having great customer ser-
vice is a priority,” he said. “It is
our way of showing gratitude
for coming.”
The restaurant’s walls pro-
vide customers with a glimpse
of Chinese culture. For
example, expressions like ‘Have
you eaten yet?’ are displayed in
Chinese with English transla-
tions under them.
Ancient Chinese proverbs
are also displayed, including:
“Make happy those who are
near and those who are far will
come.’’
Panda Express, 11617
Island Ave., operates in a
2,183-square-foot building con-
structed over the past year.
Founded in 1983, the chain
has more than 2,100 locations
nationwide, according to its
website.
There are about 20 in
Oregon, including restaurants
in Hermiston, Ontario, Bend
and Redmond.
SALEM — Approxi-
mately 58,000 Oregonians
handed in their notice in
August, according to fed-
eral data, up 18% in a single
month and near an all-time
high. Three times more Ore-
gonians quit their jobs that
month than were fired or laid
off, double the average ratio
over the past decade.
Many of Oregon’s quit-
ters are leaving for other
jobs, but state data for Sep-
tember shows that more than
11,000 of them weren’t. They
weren’t retiring, either, or
taking time off to stay home
with the kids.
They just quit. The
number of people quitting
without new jobs is soaring
at Oregon’s fastest rate in at
least two decades, up 40%
since July.
There’s no definitive
explanation for Oregon’s
sudden exodus. But Gail
Krumenauer, economist at
the Oregon Employment
Department, sees some clues.
The number of Orego-
nians quitting their jobs actu-
ally started picking up in
the spring, just as job open-
ings jumped as pandemic-era
business restrictions eased.
With employers adver-
tising $2,000 signing
bonuses, raising their wages
and advertising for workers
on TV, Krumenauer said
workers realize there’s
another job — and maybe
a better one — waiting for
them if they walk away from
their current post.
“I am confident that this
is one of those times when
you’re going to be able to
jump back into the labor
force and find a job,” she
said.
While Oregon doesn’t
have data on which indus-
tries are shedding the most
workers, Krumenauer said,
national figures show hos-
pitality workers were more
than twice as likely to leave
their jobs as workers overall.
Even with the increase in
quitting, the total number of
people leaving their jobs is
still a little below where it
was in 2019.
At the least, Krumenauer
said, the sharp increase in
people leaving their jobs
suggests more workers
are feeling good about the
economy.
“It’s generally been a
healthy sign when quits are
going up,” she said.
Deal would overhaul private forest management
Oregon will pursue plan to change how 10 million
acres of private forests are managed
By BRADLEY W. PARKS
Oregon Public Broadcasting
SALEM — Timber and envi-
ronmental groups have reached
an agreement that sets Oregon on
a course to overhaul management
of 10 million acres of private for-
estlands in the state.
The deal, announced Saturday,
Oct. 30, by Gov. Kate Brown’s
office, concludes more than a year
of negotiations between often
at-odds sides to develop a plan to
boost protections for vulnerable
fish and wildlife while shielding
the timber industry’s ability to
log.
The deadline for both sides to
either reach consensus, abandon
the process or move the deadline
was Oct. 29. Negotiators worked
through the day and wrapped
up business shortly after 1 a.m.
Oct. 30. Brown and her staff
helped push the negotiations to
completion.
“Today’s historic agreement is
a perfect example of the Oregon
Way — coming together at the
table to find common ground,
to the mutual benefit of us all,”
Brown said in a press release.
“Together, this agreement will
help to ensure that Oregon con-
tinues to have healthy forests,
fish, and wildlife, as well as eco-
nomic growth for our forest
industry and rural communities,
for generations to come. I would
like to thank everyone involved
for their role in making this
agreement a reality today.”
Jim James with the Oregon
Small Woodlands Association
similarly praised the compromise.
“We were able to put down the
contentious situations that we’ve
had in the past and we had a con-
tinuous agreement to move for-
ward,” James said. “I think that’s
an extreme positive for the state
of Oregon.”
In 2020, the sides each
Todd Sonflieth/Oregon Public Broadcasting, File
An undated file photo shows a mosaic of clearcuts and second-growth timber in
Oregon.
planned a series of competing
ballot measures that could have
turned into a costly political fight.
Environmental groups sought,
among other priorities, strict
limits on spraying of aerial pes-
ticides and improved protection
for forest waters. Meanwhile,
the timber industry sought com-
pensation for private landowners
when state regulations limited
their ability to log.
Brown instead pushed for the
two sides to negotiate, and their
agreement to do so was hailed as
historic even then, though it was
just a beginning.
Representatives from the
timber industry and environ-
mental groups were charged with
setting terms to pursue a state-
wide habitat conservation plan to
safeguard fish, wildlife and water
quality. A habitat conservation
See, Forests/Page B2