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Oregon's Economy: Overview
Mink Lake Cabin in the Three Sisters Wilderness. (Photo courtesy Jeff Green)
Oregon’s economy shadowed the national slowdown that began near the end of the decade. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Oregon bottomed out at 5 percent in the spring of 2007 and climbed during the next two years to a near-record high of 11.6 percent. The national unemployment rate fluctuated around 4.5 percent in the first half of 2007 and then climbed to 10.1 percent near the end of 2009, the highest level seen in decades. Both the Oregon and national unemployment rates fell slightly from their peaks but stayed persistently high. Oregon remained a desirable place to move to despite the recession, and the working age population grew by 2 percent between 2007 and 2009.
During the past two decades, Oregon attempted to make the transition from a resource based economy to a more mixed manufacturing and marketing economy, with an emphasis on high technology. Oregon’s hard times of the early 1980s signaled basic changes had occurred in traditional resource sectors – timber, fishing and agriculture – and the state worked to develop new economic sectors to replace older ones. Most important, perhaps, was the state’s growing high-tech sector, centered in the three counties around Portland. However, rural Oregon counties were generally left out of any shift to a new economy. When the boom of the 1990s collapsed, Oregon was again confronted with high unemployment, widespread hunger and a diminishing safety net of social services. The state lost about 43,000 payroll jobs from 2000 through 2003 – many of them high-tech manufacturing jobs in the Portland area. As with the nation, Oregon’s expansion from 2004 through 2007 was fueled by growth in construction and services. The “Great Recession” erased construction’s job gains and devastated the economy to the extent that employment in 2010 was at roughly the same level as in 2000.
Oregon is one of the most trade dependent states in the nation, and, to some extent, economic activity in other countries helps drive the state’s economy. The value of exports from Oregon to foreign countries climbed to over $19 billion in 2008 before falling below $15 billion because of the worldwide economic slowdown. Foreign trade accounts for about 12 percent of the state’s $162 billion gross state product. The state’s largest trading partners are China, Malaysia, Canada and Japan. Of course, Oregon’s trade with other U.S. states far exceeds its trade with foreign nations.
The aging population will factor in to the future of Oregon’s economy. The eldest members of the Baby Boom generation are becoming eligible for Social Security benefits, and many are considering retirement. About one out of five workers in Oregon is already over 55 years old. As the generation ages, employers will need to find new workers with the skills to replace their retiring workforce. At the same time, the growing number of retirees will demand more leisure and health care services.
Oregon's top ten commodities in 2009
(Value in millions)
