Portland Business Alliance Releases 2018 Value of Jobs Economic Check Up For Portland, East Multnomah County

The Portland Business Alliance released its 2018 Regional Value of Jobs Economic Check-up this morning, along with a special report on East Multnomah County. 

Speaker John Tapogna, President of ECONorthwest highlighted five key takeaways at the event.

1. Portland has grown significantly its college-educated population as compared to our peer regions of Seattle, Austin, Salt Lake City, Nashville and Indianapolis. From 2010-2017, Portland increased by 20% the number of those age 25+ with an associates degree or higher.  
2. Portland's wealth is more equitable relative to our peer cities, yet is still sorely lacking in wealth equality for Black/African American residents.
3. Commute times is increasing all peer group regions with Portland ranking second with 42% of workers with commutes longer than 30 minutes, second only to Seattle, which has half of all workers driving or commuting longer than 30 minutes.
4. Portland stands in the middle of the pack of our peer groups with respect to employment growth. 
5. Portland's cost-burdened households for both owner-occupied residents is the highest among the peer group cities. Portland is now less affordable than Seattle, Salt Lake, Austin, Nashville or Indianapolis. 

Also notable among Tapogna's remarks: "What drives Portland's homelessness is the high cost of housing."