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Thursday, October 13, 2022
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Jobs on the
rebound from
the pandemic
By MIKE ROGOWAY
The Oregonian
SALEM — Oregon hit a pandemic mile-
stone this summer, with employment sur-
passing pre-pandemic levels. It took the state
just 30 months to recover all 282,000 jobs lost
to COVID-19, a much faster recovery than in
most prior recessions.
The comeback has been uneven, though,
with some jobs rapidly surpassing 2019
employment levels while other industries
continue to lag. A new state report on Ore-
gon’s jobs recovery finds some patterns in
which sectors are thriving and which remain
underwater.
Those coming back the strongest all have
connections to people in their homes: They’re
“working from them, building them, making
deliveries to them, or selling or leasing them,”
according to the report from Gail Krume-
nauer, economist with the Oregon Employ-
ment Department.
Jobs at the tail end of the recovery are those
most disrupted by the pandemic, including
hospitality, education and health care.
The slowest comebacks are in entertain-
ment and hospitality jobs. Theaters, bars and
restaurants shut down in the spring of 2020,
closed by government mandate to prevent
spread of the coronavirus.
The entertain-
ment and hospi-
tality sectors lost
more than half their
The number of months it
jobs in March and
took Oregon to recover
the jobs lost during the
April 2020 and nei-
COVID-19 pandemic.
ther sector has fully
recovered. Hos-
pitality is down
more than 5%,
The number of jobs that
nearly 11,000 jobs,
were lost during the
according to the latest
pandemic.
state data.
Education and health care jobs have also
been slow to come back. Krumenauer’s report
notes that, while other industries steadily
recovered jobs after the initial burst of pan-
demic layoffs, hospital and nursing facilities
kept losing jobs through the spring of 2022.
They’re still struggling to staff up now.
In the health care field, and many other
industries, the lost jobs are less a reflection
of continued economic weakness than the
ongoing worker shortage. Vacant jobs far out-
number unemployed Oregonians, and the
shortage is especially acute in the hospitality
and health care fields.
Health care organizations have been unable
to retain workers burned out by the extraordi-
nary conditions brought on by the pandemic.
State wage data shows that many people
working in bars and restaurants before the
pandemic have moved on to other industries
with higher wages and better hours.
It’s clear there’s plenty of opportunity to
choose from.
Professional and technical services, a broad
category that includes architects, engineers
and some computer programmers, enjoyed the
fastest comeback from the pandemic. Kru-
menauer notes those are jobs people can do
remotely and the sector experienced only a
modest dip in the early days of COVID-19.
Employment is now up nearly 10% from early
2020.
Construction work is also growing rapidly,
fueled by home remodeling projects during
the stay-at-home era and strong housing
demand.
Oregon warehousing jobs had one of
the smallest dips as the pandemic began,
as people turned to online shopping to
spend their stimulus checks while avoiding
COVID-19 exposure in stores. The ware-
housing and transportation sector had
recovered all the jobs it lost at the pandem-
ic’s outset within two months, then kept
growing.
That growth appears to have plateaued,
though, amid slower growth in internet orders.
Amazon has closed some warehouses else-
where in the country and shelved plans to
open others, including a major “sort center”
that had been planned for Canby. Construction
never started there.
The pandemic recession was the deepest in
state history, with unemployment peaking at
13.3%.
30
282,000
La Grande’s new bowling alley, Brickyard Lanes, on Thursday,
Sept. 16, 2021, was ready for its grand opening.
The Observer, File
EXCELLENCE
on main street
Two La Grande downtown
businesses and one
volunteer are lauded by
Oregon Main Street
By ISABELLA CROWLEY
The Observer
L
A GRANDE — Two
local businesses and
a founding member
of La Grande Main Street
The Observer, File
Downtown received recognition
from Oregon Main Street
during the annual main street
conference on Wednesday,
Oct. 5, in Klamath Falls.
The Excellence on
Main awards, which
honor accomplish-
ments, activities and
people making a differ-
ence in historic down-
towns, were given to
Miesner
La Grande City Coun-
cilor Mary Ann Miesner, Gust and
Karin Tsiatsos for The Local and Darrin
Kiesecker for Brickyard Lanes.
“Part of my job is to serve on the
board for the Main Street program and I
just feel like the ability to pick up some
recognition for several great projects and
an amazing volunteer is great news,”
La Grande’s economic development
Austin Young
celebrates first year
as head of Allstate
Insurance office in
downtown La Grande
The Observer
Brooke Herbert/The Oregonian
director, Timothy Bishop, said.
Miesner received the Leadership
on Main award, recognizing an indi-
vidual who has shown dedication to
their local main street over a long period
of time. Miesner, a lifelong resident of
La Grande, is a founding member of La
Grande Main Street Downtown. She has
served on the board and chaired many
committees and currently acts as the
promotion committee chair.
“I was very honored to receive that
award. I’ve dedicated a lot of time and
energy into our downtown,” Miesner
said. “I got a lot of inspiration and ideas
to bring back to La Grande (from the
conference).”
The Tsiatsos duo received the Best
Adaptive Reuse award for The Local,
1508 Adams Ave. The award recog-
nizes the best reimagining of a historic
building into a new contemporary use,
while preserving the history and char-
acter of the building. The pair purchased
the dilapidated Texaco station in 2020
and gave it new life as a coffee and ice
cream cafe.
“We are very honored and proud of
La Grande to be recognized,” Gust Tsi-
atsos said.
The final award for La Grande went
to Kiesecker with Brickyard Lanes, 1212
Jefferson Ave. Kiesecker won the Out-
standing Special Project, which recog-
nizes perseverance in bringing a project
to fruition and helping to build commu-
nity. The building was originally con-
structed in 1908 and has housed a hotel,
mercantile, farm equipment store and
Eagles lodge. Kiesecker and his family
purchased the building in 2013 but were
not able to open until 2021 due to con-
struction delays. The bowling alley
blends the original style of the building
with modern-day convenience to create
a year-round indoor recreation space.
Insurance agent marks one year
By DICK MASON
Oregon construction employment is up 7%
from February 2020, among the fastest growing
industries in the pandemic’s wake.
Customers at The Local, on Adams Avenue in La Grande, can enjoy their coffee, ice cream or
other treats inside the cafe, outside on the patio, or in this open-front covered area with a
fireplace, photographed on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022.
LA GRANDE — It was a
moment both one and eight
years in the making.
Austin Young, the head of
the Allstate insurance office
in La Grande, on Thursday,
Oct. 6, marked the one-year
anniversary of his taking the
reins of the office.
The event, put on in con-
junction with the Union
County Chamber of Com-
merce, featured a ribbon
cutting and an open house
marking Young’s anniver-
sary of becoming the Allstate
exclusive insurance agent in
La Grande.
Young may have just com-
pleted his first year in his new
position, but he has deep roots
with Allstate’s La Grande
office and Union County.
Young worked for Allstate’s
La Grande office for eight
years before taking its reins
a year ago after purchasing
it from Brent Wylam, who
has moved outside the area.
Young said he learned a lot
from Wylam, who was head
of La Grande’s Allstate office
from 2012 through 2021.
“He taught me the impor-
tance of taking care of people
See, Agent/Page B6
Dick Mason/The Observer
Austin Young, center, the head of Allstate Insurance’s La Grande office,
prepares to cut a ribbon at a ceremony marking the first anniversary of his
taking the reins of the office on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022. Also shown, from left,
are Scott Newman, director of the Union County Chamber of Commerce;
Young’s wife, Renee Wells, who also works at the insurance office; and
Anthony Swales and JoHanna Pettey, chamber ambassadors for the Union
County Chamber of Commerce.