[5]
Report Estimates Consequences of Slow Oregon Job Growth
By Oregon Business & Industry [6],
Oregon employment stagnation: From 2010 to 2020, Oregon jobs increased by 2.23% on an annualized basis. From 2020 to 2026, however, the annualized increase plummeted to 0.04% even as other states continued to add jobs. Idaho’s annualized rate during this period was 2.43%, for example, and Utah’s was 2.16%, according to a recent report by the Common Sense Institute Oregon [7].
Wage growth stagnation: From 2010 to 2020, average wages for Oregon workers increased by 44%, the nation’s fifth-highest rate. From 2020 through 2025, however, they grew by 23%, ranking only 30th nationally, CSI Oregon reported.
The consequences: What has Oregon’s economy lost as a result of the state’s pandemic-related shift in job and wage growth? CSI Oregon attempts to answer this question by estimating jobs and wages as if they had continued to grow as they had between 2010 and 2020. By that measure, CSI Oregon estimates, Oregon has lost:
- 259,000 jobs
- $73 billion in wages
- $257 billion in business sales
- $276 billion in personal income
- $30 billion in state and local government revenue
The takeaway: Oregon, CSI Oregon concludes, “has gone from a state with enormous opportunity for workers and businesses to a state barely growing – at least when compared to other states.” If policymakers want to improve opportunities for workers, they must create conditions that encourage business investment in Oregon rather than elsewhere.
Learn more: Read CSI Oregon’s full report here [7]. Go here [8] to read OBI’s recently released 2027-28 Oregon Competitiveness Agenda, which contains dozens of policy recommendations that would improve Oregon’s economic competitiveness.