Clark County, Washington, just across the Columbia River from Portland, City of Hippies, is one of the most economically depressed areas in the entire country. So why are local officials cheery about the jobs picture? Because there’s a local hiring boom:
Fifteen businesses either relocated or expanded in the county with the help of the development council since January. Of those, 13 shared details of their operations, and together they are generating about $21 million in annual payroll with average pay of $38,800 a year per job. The county’s average wage is $31,000.
“We declare the recession over in Clark County,” said Bart Phillips, development council president, at the group’s annual membership meeting in Vancouver. “It’s evident in our numbers. Clearly businesses are looking ahead to a growing economy.”
This is happening in a county with an unemployment rate of 8.9%. So Paul Krugman, Howard Dean, John Edwards and other Dem party hacks who ask where the jobs are should please look here. Many of Clark County’s new jobs are in the services sector, the kinds of jobs that are supposed to be moving offshore; this apparently means “off the shores of the Columbia River” from over-taxed Oregon and California.
Please use proper nomenclature: Portland is ‘Little Beirut’, not ‘The City of Hippies’.
Harrumph.
Wouldn’t be surprised if some of the relocations were from Multnomah county, whose stewards, when I left, were doing their damnedest to discourage and drive out small business.