Urban Oregon Dominates the State's Manufacturing Employment

The Silicon Forest. The name illustrates the successes of Oregon's high technology companies. The term also reflects the history of the state's wood product manufacturing and natural resource extraction industries. Today, Portland has a majority of the state's manufacturing employment. Historically the industry dominated employment throughout Oregon. In the last decade, employment in manufacturing, like all employment in Oregon, was consolidated in the urban areas.

Oregon's manufacturing industry employed 167,800 Oregonians in June 2011 and made up 10 percent of the state's total employment.

Wages in manufacturing tend to be higher than annual average wages for all industries . In 2010, the statewide annual average wage in manufacturing was $57,411, 38 percent higher than for all industries ($41,667). The largest difference in wages was in the Corvallis MSA where annual average wages in manufacturing were 85 percent higher than all wages.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Oregon's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 3.4 percent over the last year, more than the U.S. GDP did. The largest portion of that annual growth (2.8%) is attributed to manufacturing. Growth in the urban areas' portion of manufacturing appears to be driving GDP growth.

State GDP growth was supported by manufacturing employment growth. Over the last year, the industry added 3,500 jobs, or 2.1 percent. Between June 2010 and June 2011, Oregon's total employment grew by just 1.4 percent. This is the first year since 2006 that manufacturing added employment. The current employment level is only slightly higher than 2009 employment and, not including 2009 and 2010, the lowest job level in the last two decades.

Read more about Oregon's manufacturing employment in the full article written by our regional economist in central Oregon, Carolyn Eagan.