[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
Portland, Oregon, faces another major blow after two major employers announced huge job cuts - as the progressive city struggles with crime and homelessness.The city is facing the worst job losses of any major US metropolitan area, new data reveals.
Non-farm employment plummeted by 0.8 percent over the past year - the steepest decline among America's top 50 cities, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The tech sector, once considered Portland's economic powerhouse, is leading the exodus, as reported by wweek, with major companies like Intel and Nike announcing major job cuts.
Intel, the area's largest private employer, announced plans to slash a staggering 15 percent of its workforce - potentially affecting thousands of local jobs.
CEO Pat Gelsinger called the cuts "some of the most consequential changes in our company's history,’ as reported by Bizjournals.
Intel's stock cratered nearly 30 percent following the announcement, wiping out $35 billion in market value - its biggest single-day drop in over 40 years
Nike, another major company in Portland, has already cut its workforce by 5 percent in the past year.
Intel and Nike were named two of the worst performing companies with a 38 percent price drop from the end of 2023 to the market close just before the July 4th holiday.
Oregon Health & Science University, Payments company Block, Target, and video game maker Lost Boys Interactive have all followed suit with significant layoffs.
Jake Procino, a state economist for Oregon, emphasized the alarming trend in an email to Wweek.
"There have been a quite a few public notices and WARN notices showing layoffs, and that volume has been relatively high in the past year, both of which has likely contributed to the year-over-year job loss that we’ve seen in the Portland MSA," he said.
Still, Portland's unemployment rate remains at 4 percent, below its 10-year average.
However,
some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go...
experts warn this figure may mask the true extent of the city's economic downfall, as tech workers flee the area.
In May 2023, Business owners began fleeing Portland in droves amid a pronounced rise in crime and homelessness.
Public data shows that since the pandemic, more than 2,600 downtown businesses have filed changes of address with the US Postal Service to leave their downtown ZIP codes.
Several big-name employers, such Umpqua Bank, have been among the mass exodus, carried out by owners who have taken issue with the rising crime levels and homelessness - and the city's failure to address it.