Notice of Special Procurement - Amendment #1 for OED HWOL Subscription

This is a Notice of Special Procurement Amendment #1 (REQ-DASOBO-00167424) issued by the Oregon Department of Administrative Services on behalf of the Oregon Employment Department to reinstate, extend, and amend an existing subscription agreement with The Conference Board Inc. for their Help Wanted On-Line (HWOL) Statistical Time Series and Job Listing Subscription services. The procurement seeks to extend the agreement through December 8, 2028, providing real-time job market analytics and help-wanted job listings that are integrated into OED's website tools, including Job Finder and Occupational Profiles, with daily updates derived from thousands of websites through custom data processing. The HWOL subscription also grants membership in The Conference Board, providing access to additional economic services and regional Consumer Confidence Index data. The special procurement was approved by the State Chief Procurement Officer on January 22, 2026, retroactively effective December 9, 2025, pending completion of a mandatory seven-day public notice period. The deadline for protests is seven calendar days from the first date of public notice, with written protests to be submitted to the State Chief Procurement Officer at the Oregon Department of Administrative Services, EGS-Procurement Services, 1225 Ferry Street SE, Salem, OR 97301, or by email to egs.pscustomercare@das.oregon.gov. Questions regarding this procurement should be directed to Brian Eilerts, PCS 3, at 971-283-5302 or Brian.Eilerts@DAS.Oregon.Gov.

This special procurement qualifies as a sole-source procurement under Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) 279B.085(5) and 279B.400, with justification centered on The Conference Board's unique ability to provide continuous HWOL data streams required for longitudinal research and OED's operational continuity during its ongoing Workforce Modernization Integrated Labor Exchange and Workforce Management project. The Conference Board is the incumbent contractor and has been the sole vendor providing the specific HWOL data series with the required statistical methodologies and quality control standards since the original agreement's approval in December 2020; transitioning to alternative vendors such as Geographic Solutions or Indeed.com would create breaks in the 10-year historical data time series, necessitate retraining of OED economists, and potentially require significant IT resource diversion to redesign existing data integration processes. The Conference Board, a non-profit entity, is the sole organization authorized to respond to this procurement. The total estimated cost for the three-year amendment period is $170,272, structured as follows: Year One (December 9, 2025 to December 8, 2026) at $55,823; Year Two (December 9, 2026 to December 8, 2027) at $56,940; and Year Three (December 9, 2027 to December 8, 2028) at $57,509. The cumulative maximum not-to-exceed compensation for the entire agreement is $1,032,970.