We've been on a smooth downward trend.

There is a weakening trend showing up in the numbers since June. It does appear over the last few months that we're hitting a soft patch of our own. I'm sure that's discouraging to those looking for a job.

We produce data on average wage by industry, but the portion of compensation that we haven't had (in our surveys) is benefits, We decided it was time to get on the bandwagon and do this.

What you can see just walking around Portland is evidence of what's going on in construction.

This is generally more good news, a lower unemployment rate, additional seasonally adjusted job growth, continued growth and improvement in the Oregon economy.

We have picked up the pace pretty substantially. It is surprising the forecasters.