The American Dream used to mean that if you put in a hard day’s work, you could expect good wages, benefits, and a better life for your kids. Today, the kinds of jobs that can provide a solid middle-class life in return for hard work are in short supply — unemployment is high, earnings are flat, and hard-won benefits are being lost. The future of Oregon’s middle class, the backbone of the state’s economy for more than half a century, is at risk.

Read The Fraying of Oregon’s Middle Class, a report authored by Demos and the Oregon Center for Public Policy.