I recently returned from a week down in the LA Metro area with my daughter at an athletic camp, and was amazed at the amount of people! We have so much space in Oregon! So, I looked it up and the LA Metro area is approximately 18 Million people plus. That is FOUR OREGON’s IN ONE METRO AREA !! I was shocked….. but in our little world, as the Portland Metro Economy goes, so often goes the tamber of the local State economy. Here are a few sub notes from the latest attached report.
The Portland region saw 8.1% job growth from the lows of April 2020 to April of 2021. While that is certainly an historic growth rate, Portland’s recovery is slower than that of most major metropolitan regions, and Portland is known for struggling back when economic downturns occur. We took a step back in our employment numbers during the holidays, but preliminary spring numbers suggest Portland is showing signs of slow and stronger job creation. We will see…….?? As of May, Portland recovered 55% of the jobs we lost in the spring economic crisis.
Looking at industries buckets, lots of diversity there. Construction and retail have largely recovered. Manufacturing is flat over the last 12 months. The transportation and warehousing sector was growing rapidly before COVID and has since kicked into a faster growth rate with home deliveries becoming very popular! So odd to see “growth” during a world pandemic, right ? The hardest hit sector, accommodations and food services has regained only 53% of the jobs lost in the initial COVID crisis in the Metro area.
New population estimates from the U.S. Census show the Portland region grew by 12% from 2010 to 2020. This places Portland as the 18th fastest growing metro region among the 50 largest U.S. metro regions. Portland’s population growth is half of that of Raleigh and Orlando, two of the fastest growing U.S. regions. From another perspective, Portland’s population growth is three times faster than Cincinnati, and six times faster than Philadelphia or Los Angeles. Seven major metro regions saw zero or negative population change for the decade. Note that of the 10 fastest growing US metro regions, four of them are in Texas.
Click below to download the PDF flyer!
Multnomah Economic Indicators July 2021
.pdf
Download PDF • 408KB