Regional Economic News: population, employment, and the latest UO Indexes

Oregon's leading economic regions still lag Oregon and its largest metropolitan statistical area, the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro MSA, in one key category: population growth. Beginning in 2007 and moving five years forward to 2012, Oregon's population rose by 3.9 percent, while Portland growth reached 4.1 percent, which matched the U.S. gain. Comparatively, the Mid-Columbia Region's population rose by 3.1 percent and the neighboring Columbia Basin Region grew by 2.8 percent. Despite having a slower pace of population growth, the leading regions managed to put up some fantastic results in several key areas: per capita personal income growth; labor force growth; and total employment growth.

Also, today the University of Oregon released the latest Oregon Regional Economic Indexes covering five regions in the state (Central Oregon, Eugene, Portland Metro, Rogue Valley, and Salem). Tim Duy, who authors the monthly release, noted that "the regional divergence that has been a characteristic of the recovery partially re-emerged in January." 

You can find more information about Oregon's leading economic regions in the full article written by Regional Economist Dallas Fridley, and get more details about the Oregon Regional Economic Indexes in the latest release from the University of Oregon.