A7
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • FRIDAY, JULY 23, 2021
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BRIEFING
Officials looking
into 3rd virus dose
Federal health officials
signaled Thursday they’re
hunting ways to quickly
learn if a third COVID-19
vaccine dose might better
protect organ transplant
recipients and other pa-
tients with weak immune
systems.
While the vaccines are
strongly effective in most
people, many Americans
with immune-suppressing
health problems remain in
limbo after immunization,
uncertain how protected
they really are. France and
Israel already have begun
offering an extra dose to
transplant recipients and
other immunocompro-
mised people. In the U.S.,
those patients increasingly
are pushing for — even
lying to get — another
shot, too.
Thursday, advisers to
the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention
reviewed some small
studies that hint, but don’t
prove, a third dose might
help at least some immu-
nocompromised patients.
The panel can’t formally
recommend an extra dose
without Food and Drug
Administration permis-
sion, but several advisers
asked if the government
could allow worried pa-
tients to sign up for one as
part of a study.
“We are actively look-
ing into ways that could
be done,” replied CDC’s
Dr. Amanda Cohn. “Stay
tuned. We are working
through those issues.”
Jobless claims
rise to 419,000
The number of Amer-
icans seeking unemploy-
ment benefits rose last
week from the lowest
point of the pandemic,
even as the job market
appears to be rebounding
on the strength of a re-
opened economy.
The Labor Department
said Thursday that jobless
claims increased last week
to 419,000, the most in
two months, from 368,000
the previous week. The
number of first-time appli-
cations, which generally
tracks layoffs, has fallen
steadily since topping
900,000 in early January.
Economists character-
ized last week’s increase as
most likely a blip caused
by some one-time factors
and partly a result of the
inevitable bumpiness in
the week-to-week data.
Applications for jobless aid
jumped last week, for ex-
ample, in Michigan, where
some auto plants have
temporarily shut down
production because of
supply shortages.
Existing home
sales up in June
Sales of previously oc-
cupied U.S. homes rose
in June, snapping a four-
month losing streak, while
strong demand for high-
er-end properties and
ultra-low mortgage rates
helped push prices to new
highs.
Existing homes sales
rose 1.4% last month from
May to a seasonally-ad-
justed annual rate of 5.86
million units, the National
Association of Realtors
said Thursday. That’s just
under the 5.9 million an-
nual rate economists were
expecting, according to
FactSet.
Sales jumped 22.9%
from June last year, when
some states were still
locked down due to the
pandemic. Last month’s
home-sales pace is ahead
of the 5.7 million annual
rate in February 2020, be-
fore the coronavirus led to
a spring slowdown in sales
last year.
— Bulletin wire reports
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Oregon advances job searches, training
Federal jobless
benefits end Sept. 4
BY PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
Weeks before the end of fed-
eral unemployment benefit pro-
grams on Sept. 4, Oregon Em-
ployment Department officials
have shifted their efforts toward
helping recipients get jobs —
and not necessarily the jobs
they had prior to the economic
downturn resulting from the
coronavirus pandemic last year.
“We want to make sure that
people looking for work get the
services they need, so they can
be back at work before those
important safety-net programs
end,” acting director David Ger-
stenfeld said.
He said that goes beyond re-
instating federal work search
requirements — that people are
able to work, available for work,
and actively seeking work to
continue to qualify for unem-
ployment benefits — and regis-
tering people for the iMatchS-
kills system to connect them
with jobs.
Starting this past week, he
said, several WorkSource offices
have reopened for in-person
appointments to help people
with job searches and training.
The pilot project involves only
offices in Eugene, on the coast,
and in Southern and Eastern
Oregon.
All WorkSource offices,
which are partnerships between
the state agency and others,
have been accepting telephone
and online appointments for
job seekers. They do not pro-
cess benefit claims.
Agency economist Gail Kru-
menauer said a couple of stud-
ies of the 25 states that chose to
end extra federal benefits ahead
of schedule — Oregon is not
among them — do not indicate
that they have caused massive
dislocations for unemployed
workers. One study was by the
University of Massachusetts at
Amherst, the other by the na-
tional job listing website Indeed.
Krumenauer says about
32,500 people still are unable to
come back to work for various
reasons related to the corona-
virus pandemic. They may be
ailing themselves, have respon-
sibility to care for family mem-
bers, or unable to obtain child
care.
But that total is down from
66,000 last fall, and Krume-
nauer said the number of un-
employment benefit recipients
has dropped in recent months.
The two-month plunge from
February to April 2020, when
Oregon lost almost 290,000 jobs
(about one in seven) after the
pandemic resulted in business
curtailments and closures, has
now been deemed a recession.
The usual federal definition of
a recession is a decline in gross
domestic product — the mea-
sure of goods and services —
for two consecutive quarters.
Oregon’s unemployment rate
shot up from a record low 3.5%
in March 2020 to a record ad-
justed high of 13.2% in April
2020, and the number of un-
employment claims also topped
500,000 within a short period.
The rate has since declined; it
was 5.6% in June, although Or-
egon has regained only about
two-thirds of the lost jobs. A
full recovery is projected in late
2022 or early 2023.
Oregon job growth in the
first six months of this year
equaled the number of jobs cre-
ated in the 22 months prior to
the pandemic in early 2020. But
Oregon businesses reported al-
most 98,000 job vacancies this
past spring, a record since that
statistic was first compiled in
2013.
Returning summer tourists help
businesses in Bend and beyond
Travel group says spending may
not fully rebound until 2024
BY MAE ANDERSON
Associated Press
S
mall businesses in the U.S. that de-
pend on tourism and vacationers say
business is bouncing back, as Amer-
icans rebook postponed trips and
spend freely on food, entertainment
and souvenirs.
U.S. states and cities have loosened many
of their restrictions on crowd size and
mask-wearing, a positive sign for businesses
that struggled for more than a year when
theme parks and other tourist attractions were
shuttered.
Still, the return to a pre-pandemic “normal”
is a way off for most. There are few business
travelers and international tourists. Many busi-
nesses are grappling with staff shortages and
other challenges. And if a surge of the more
contagious delta variant or another variant of
the coronavirus forces states to reenact restric-
tions or lockdowns, the progress might be lost.
The U.S. Travel Association, a travel industry
trade group, predicts domestic travel spending
will total $787 billion in 2021. That’s up 22%
from 2020 but still down 20% from 2019 levels.
The association predicts travel spending won’t
completely rebound above 2019 levels until
2024.
But so far, tourists have been freewheeling
with spending, some small-business owners say.
Alan Dietrich, CEO of Crater Lake Spirits
by Bendistillery, which has two tasting rooms
catering to tourists including one in downtown
Bend, said he’s seen an explosion in demand
since pandemic restrictions were fully lifted
ahead of the Fourth of July.
“Every minute we’re open, we’re seeing peo-
ple coming in,” he said. “People have been
locked down for the last 14 months. They’re
dying for something to do. The limiting factor
is just staff.”
He is also seeing people spending freely. In
Bend, the average price of an entree has gone
up $3 and the price of a cocktail has gone up $1
due to staffing shortages and higher wholesale
food prices, said Dietrich, who also sits on the
board of Visit Bend, the city’s contracted tour-
ism development agency.
“No one is balking at the prices at all,” he
added. “Nobody cares what stuff costs right
now, people are just happy to be out and
about.”
Crater Lake Spirits by Bendistillery tasting room at
1024 NW Bond St. in downtown Bend.
Pandemic job loss for hotels
Even as tourists return to popular desti-
nations, a new report says nearly 500,000
hotel jobs lost in the United States during
the pandemic will not return this year.
The American Hotel and Lodging Asso-
ciation released its midyear report with
Submitted/Bulletin file
two key findings: One in five of the lodg-
ing jobs lost nationwide would not come
back by January, and revenues will be off
by $44 billion nationwide from their highs
in 2019.
In a state-by-state breakdown, the orga-
nization estimated that Oregon would lose
5,235 hotel jobs by year’s end.
COVID-19 relief bill
Feds announce economic development grants
BY ZEKE MILLER
AND JOSH BOAK
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Presi-
dent Joe Biden’s administration
is beginning to make $3 bil-
lion in economic development
grants available to communi-
ties — a tenfold increase in the
program paid for by this year’s
COVID-19 relief bill.
Commerce Secretary Gina
Raimondo said her agency on
Thursday will begin accept-
ing applications for the com-
petitive grants, which officials
hope will create hundreds of
thousands of jobs and help
struggling cities and towns
make long-term investments
to drive development for years
to come. Applications for the
grants are available at the web-
site for Commerce Depart-
ment’s Economic Development
Administration.
“This is about real help for
communities across the coun-
try as they rebuild,” Raimondo
said Wednesday in an inter-
view with The Associated
Press. “It’s about longer-term
investments to help commu-
nities build themselves back
from the bottom up in the
ways that work best for them.”
The grants will be targeted at
supporting local infrastructure,
job training programs and de-
veloping new industries. Recip-
ients will be selected on the ba-
sis of the anticipated return on
investment to taxpayers, which
Raimondo said at Thursday’s
White House briefing would
involve job creation and racial
and gender equity goals. She
estimated that 300,000 jobs
would be created by the grants
in the near term.
“Our number one invest-
ment priority is equity,” Rai-
mondo said. “In order to qual-
ify to get the money, you’ll
have to prove to us that you’ll
have an equity lens.”
The administration hopes
that the competitive nature
of the program will also coax
private businesses and philan-
thropies to focus on rehabil-
itating their communities by
making their own develop-
ment commitments. There will
be $1 billion available for 20 to
30 regions to spend on projects
that would rebuild their econo-
mies, as well as $750 million in
grants targeted for travel, tour-
ism and outdoor recreation.