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Wednesday, OctOber 6, 2021
Bridge:
continued from Page a1
The industry, Paulette said, lends
itself to a “different customer base”
which is “less respectful” and “harder
to control.”
As she and Daren are both over
50, they see themselves in a “retire-
ment phase” in which they do not
want to deal with a difficult clientele.
“It was becoming hard, mentally,
for me to walk in the door at the
end of the day,” she said. “I worked
really, really hard over these 23
years. It’s aged me, and I feel my
husband and I have sacrificed a lot
in the time frame we’ve been here,”
Paulette said.
In a few years, she may even sell
Workers:
continued from Page a1
when many other companies
are struggling to retain or to
find employees.
N.W. Crane has expe-
rience in worker relations,
which Karlson attributed to
its humble beginnings. The
company grew as part of
N.W. Metal Fabricators Inc., a
company owned by his father,
Kerry Karlson. His father was
doing well with metal fabri-
cating, but he saw the need for
cranes. When he started oper-
ating his own crane, more and
more employers approached
him for help. He added a sec-
ond crane, which led to more.
By 2005, the crane side of
the business was large enough
to justify a separate business,
and N.W. Crane Services was
born. It began operating on its
own property, separate from
the fabrication company from
which it started.
A family operation that
has developed since Ryan
Karlson’s father first came
to Hermiston with his fam-
ily in 1986, the companies
treat their workers like fam-
ily, and that approach has
“gone a long way” to inspir-
ing employees to stay, he said.
Having experienced work-
ers is vital, Karlson said,
because their jobs are no
small feat.
He has nine cranes. The
smallest weighs 40 tons. The
largest tops out at 550 tons.
He recently had this biggest
crane on site at Lamb Weston.
It took 15 semitrailers to move
the crane and a 60-ton support
crane to put it together. Taking
it down, after the job, takes his
staff 5.5 hours of coordinated,
skilled and difficult work.
The Bridge. For now, though, she
said she wants to build it further and
“make it the best it can be.”
She said she has recently had new
opportunities that made this transi-
tion possible. With COVID-19,
grants and loans have been made
available to the business. They would
not have been able to remodel with-
out the assistance, she said.
Now, with the income from the
kitchen rather than mostly from the
bar, Paulette said the business is as
profitable as it had been prior the
pandemic. She is having difficulty
finding employees, but she is look-
ing and said she feels she will even-
tually find the right people.
There are funny moments with
this change, however, she said.
Sometimes, people call The Bridge
“They’re amazing,” Karl-
son said of his employees.
One of these amazing
employees, Karlson said, is
Don Larch, a N.W. Crane
crane operator and truck
driver with over two years
experience in his current
position.
Larch earned NCCO crane
certification, required on cer-
tain jobs and insisted upon by
N.W. Crane. He said his com-
pany helped him get it, some-
thing which was not done at
his previous employers. He is
grateful for it, but he said the
certificate is not the only ben-
efit he likes.
“There are multiple good
reasons for working here,” he
said. He enjoys his co-work-
ers and employers, as well as
the benefits.
At 57, he has had several
truck driving jobs, and his
current employer measures up
favorably with any of them,
Larch said.
Economists say prepare for
headwinds to temper growth
To say it’s been a tough
year to be a business owner
would be an understatement.
The rise and the fall of
COVID-19 cases, risk levels
that opened and closed busi-
nesses, new safety protocols
and a severe labor shortage
has forced many business
owners to rethink and retool
their operations. Some indus-
tries — health care and lei-
sure and hospitality — have
been hit hard by the pandemic
and a labor shortage. Others,
like professionals haven’t felt
a thing, economists say.
In response, small busi-
nesses have raised wages,
bumped up benefits and raised
prices to offset these new
costs. A job that paid a mini-
HerMIstOnHeraLd.cOM • A9
to ask whether it is open and whether
dancers are performing.
Yes, they are open, she says. No,
there are no dancers.
Another humorous thing, Daren
said, is when he hears the sound of
babies, which is a strange thing to
hear inside those walls.
Pivoting to something more “pal-
atable to the community,” he said, has
involved a “mind shift.” Little things,
such as buying high chairs for infants
to getting larger tables to accommo-
date families, had to be done. They
also had to change advertising and
reorientate the kitchen. Portion con-
trol and kitchen cost analysis, which
were afterthoughts, had to be learned.
Still, Daren Dufloth said he’s
glad for it and so, too, seem to be
the public.
mum wage of $9.25 an hour
in 2016, now pays $12.75 an
hour, according to the Oregon
Bureau of Labor and Indus-
tries. For the past five weeks,
EO Media Group explored
the effect of the labor short-
age on businesses, industries
and workers young and old.
The Oregon Employment
Department reported that the
state regained nearly two out
of three jobs lost in spring
2020 when government man-
dates restricted or closed busi-
ness operations. A record level
of job openings were reported
in April and June in Oregon
and across the country. Busi-
nesses reported 98,000 job
vacancies at any given time
between April and June.
In addition, there were
about 32,500 Oregonians
between April and June who
have said they couldn’t work
because of child care concerns
or health concerns related to
COVID-19.
EO Media Group asked
regional economists Christo-
pher Rich and Gail Krume-
nauer to project the economic
outlook for their areas and the
state’s economist to examine
about where Oregon’s econ-
omy is headed. Their answers
have been edited for clarity
and brevity.
Q: What is the economic
vision for Oregon going for-
ward now that the initial
impacts of the pandemic-re-
lated shutdowns are behind
us?
A: Krumenauer: I think
the general, common theme is
that we’d all hope to see con-
tinued recovery and/or eco-
nomic expansion. As recovery
and/or expansion continues,
there are some longer-term
factors that are going to come
into play, creating headwinds
Festival:
continued from Page a1
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Paige Esterbloom fills beverages
Sept. 25, 2021, at The Bridge Bistro &
Brews in Umatilla.
for growth. Those are lower
net in-migration (the primary
way we grow our workforce
is from people moving here),
and ongoing or increasing
baby boomer retirements.
And rural areas tend to have
a larger share of workers at or
near retirement age.
Q: Will there be inflation
or other affect on the economy
because of the higher wages
paid to workers in this tight
labor market?
A: Krumenauer: I’d say
that yes, we’ve already been
seeing higher inflation in
recent months. It’s due in part
to worker wages rising, in part
to higher demand (this sum-
mer for things like air travel
and accommodations), and
also in part to shortages in
supply chains that are reduc-
ing the ability to produce as
many of certain goods as peo-
ple want (microchips and cars
are a good example of this).
Q: Where is the economy
headed?
A: Runberg: As recov-
ery and/or expansion con-
tinues, there are some lon-
ger-term facts that are going
to come into play, creat-
ing headwinds for growth.
Those are lower net in-migra-
tion — the primary way we
grow our workforce — and
ongoing or increasing retire-
ments. According to the Cur-
rent Population Survey, there
was a 4.5% increase in those
65-plus who were not in the
labor force in 2020. That is a
big jump, roughly 2 million
people age 65 and older are
out of the labor force nation-
wide. The big picture trend is
clear that the retiring of the
baby boomers has begun and
it is one of the factors in our
tight labor market.
Q: Will businesses have
to continue to pivot to stay
ahead of this current labor
crisis?
A: Krumenauer: As for
businesses pivoting, or rather
continuing to adjust their hir-
ing strategies, yes. I think
they’ve already been incred-
ibly innovative in changing
their business operations due
to COVID, and in trying to
hire more workers when
the labor market is so tight
(lots of job openings, rela-
tively low unemployment,
and some workers still fac-
ing barriers to taking jobs).
Q: What are some of the
things employers are doing to
encourage workers to return
to the workforce?
A: Krumenauer: For
one, employers have raised
wages. Those wages have
risen by more than 2% in
Oregon over the past year.
Three out of five offered
health benefits, and half
offered retirement benefits.
One out of 10 of employers
offering health insurance,
and one out of five offering
retirement benefits, cited
worker hiring and retention
advantages related to those
offerings. Half of Oregon’s
Mackey was at the festival
with products, such as hats,
made from alpaca wool. She
raises alpacas, sheers them,
sends the fiber away to be pro-
cessed and then she makes prod-
ucts with the wool. She knits,
weaves, crochets and felts.
As Beck greeted attendees
and met with vendors, she said
the 2021 Morrow County Har-
vest Festival was a big success.
And she said she expects next
year will be even better, with
more space for more vendors and
additional attendees returning
from COVID-19 quarantines.
private firms offered paid
holidays, and half offered
paid vacation days. One-
third offered at least one of
the following: flexible work
schedules, production or per-
formance bonuses, paid pro-
fessional development train-
ing and life insurance. Some
employers have relaxed
experience requirements.
Employers also are lay-
ering help wanted signs
with other efforts such as
referral incentives, signing
bonuses, posting with online
job boards, and working with
recruiters outside of their
immediate geographical area.
Eastern Oregon outlook
by Christopher Rich: “The
largest uncertainty in Eastern
Oregon’s regional outlook is
currently COVID-19. Prior
to the pandemic, the region
saw prolonged job growth
beginning to slow due to a
tight labor market. One of the
largest concerns employers
voiced was a need to hire
workers and a lack thereof.
Industries at the top of the list
were health care and social
assistance, manufacturing,
retail trade, leisure and hos-
pitality, and transportation.
Total employment reached
a peak of 70,570 jobs in
October 2019 and the aver-
age annual unemployment
rate for the region had fallen
to a low 4.7%. The Janu-
ary through August average
unemployment rate for the
region was 5.3%.”
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