Here is a prime example of how the Tri-County area goes, so goes the states economy, and Oregon tends to follow national trends pretty well as we are diverse and not too dependent on any one industry. See attached and below for a good understanding of where we have been, and where we might be headed. This comes from Christian Kaylor with the State of Oregon.

Portland’s job growth situation has been on a roller coaster ride the last year. Strong growth in the summer, followed by a flattening with the September smoke, again solid growth in October, followed by a noticeable decline in the holidays as new restrictions were enacted. Now, January and February numbers are showing solidly positive job growth. The Portland region has generally tracked the US employment trends over the last year, while underperforming the US recovery.

The Portland area has seen the vast majority of job loss in Oregon. Multnomah County alone absorbed 39% of Oregon’s job loss. Multnomah County has lost almost one in eight jobs from February 2020 to February 2021. In contrast, at least a dozen rural Oregon counties lost less than 5% of their employment.

Multnomah County is just 1% of Oregon’s land area with 20% of Oregon’s population. Multnomah has 30% of Oregon’s working age population with a 4-year college degree (or more). Most impressively, Multnomah County has been improving its relative concentration of highly educated workers since 2010, with 44% of Oregon’s growth in this demographic just in Multnomah County. Adding in Washington and Clackamas counties, 79% of Oregon’s growth in this demographic is just in the Tri- County region.

 Click below to download the PDF flyer!

Multnomah Economic Indicators March 2021

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