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About The Columbia press. (Astoria, Or.) 1949-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 2, 2019)
T he C olumbia P ress August 2, 2019 Employers still report trouble filling vacancies Oregon’s private employ- ers reported 58,000 job vacancies at any given time last year. The majority were iden- tified by businesses as jobs that were difficult to fill. The results of a survey and findings by the Oregon Em- ployment Department were published in the report, “Or- egon’s Current Workforce Gaps: Hiring Challenges for Unfilled Job Vacancies.” In a long economic expan- sion with unemployment rates at or near record lows in Oregon for two years, a lack of applicants posed the greatest challenge to employers. In 2018, near- ly one-third of all diffi- cult-to-fill job vacancies had too few applicants, or none at all. The second most-common reason businesses cited for difficulty filling vacancies was unfavorable working conditions. These included challenges finding workers for part-time, on-call, over- night, or inconsistent work shifts. Employers faced chal- lenges filling job vacancies across a variety of jobs. Occupations with the larg- est number of difficult-to-fill job vacancies included personal care aides, truck drivers, food preparation workers, roofers, restaurant cooks, and landscaping and groundskeeping workers. Although difficult-to-fill vacancy totals were smaller, employers reported chal- lenges filling essentially all job vacancies for forest and conservation workers, plumbers, construction su- pervisors, printing-press operators, and intercity and transit bus drivers. By industry, health care and social assistance report- ed the largest number of dif- ficult-to-fill job vacancies. Construction had the sec- ond-largest number of chal- lenging job vacancies, which also represented the highest share of hard-to-fill vacan- cies by sector. Construction grew the fastest of any industry in Oregon between early 2016 and 2018. Businesses reported diffi- culty filling the majority of job vacancies in every re- gion of the state. For the full report and more details on recent Ore- gon job vacancies, visit the “publications” tab on Qual- ityInfo.org. College news Abby Mathews of War- renton recently graduated from Eastern Oregon Univer- sity with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. The campus in La Grande awarded 740 degrees during the school year. Mathews graduated with cum laude honors, which means she kept a grand-point average of 3.5 or higher. Charlene Harber of Astoria was named to the spring 2019 dean’s list at Palmer College of Chiroprac- tic in San Jose, Calif. Palmer College of Chiro- practic was founded in 1897 by D.D. Palmer, known as the discovery of chiropractic. It is the first and largest college within the chiropractic pro- fession. 3 Man arrested for tampering with witness The Columbia Press A man was arrested on sus- picion of domestic violence and tampering with a witness after a woman reported he’d bullied her into writing a let- ter to drop charges against him in a criminal case, ac- cording to a police report. Tybre Jakobe Snell, 21, who is living at a rehab facility in Astoria, was booked at Clat- sop County Jail for tamper- ing with a witness, fourth-de- gree assault and violation of a release agreement. Police were called to the woman’s home in the 1500 block of South Main Avenue of him, Fontana wrote. at 11:10 p.m. July 24. But when he checked Although she is a pro- with his attorney’s of- tected person in a court fice, he learned it wasn’t order, she admitted al- true. lowing him inside the At one point, he residence, according to “grabbed her by both a probable cause dec- arms in the upper-arm laration filed with the Snell area and moved her courts. She told police that Snell from the door and he then wanted her to write a letter left,” according to the docu- to his attorney so charges ment. While the officer was in- against him would not be pursued in court, Officer Al- terviewing her, the woman fonzo Fontana wrote in the received a message from a friend that the man was at declaration. Initially, the woman told Warrenton Mini Mart. He Snell she’d sent the letter by was arrested there a short email because she was afraid time later. Man raises ruckus in store, causes hit-and-run The Columbia Press A man who was trespassed from Rite Aid for creating a disturbance in the store was CMH offers art therapy class A class in art therapy for those living with cancer or chronic illnesses is held 1:45 to 3:45 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays at the CMH- OHSU Knight Cancer Collab- orative, 1905 Exchange St., Astoria. The class is led by creden- tialed art therapists Meagan Sokol and Sheryl Redburn. Registration is recommend- ed, but drop-ins are wel- come. For more information, call 503-338-4520. It is free for patients of the collaborative. cited a short time later for causing a hit-and-run colli- sion in the parking lot, ac- cording to police reports. Store employees called po- lice about 2 p.m. Monday, July 29, to report the man and request police trespass him from the location. Don- ald Oscar Lansdown, 41, of Astoria complied, but as he was leaving the parking lot, he sideswiped a vehicle driv- en by a 53-year-old Kent, Wash., woman, according to a crash report. Lansdown’s red Nissan pickup was located a short time later and he was cited for criminal failure to per- form the duties of a driver, driving without an operator’s license, careless driving and driving without insurance.
