Greater Portland Inc. is developing the region’s Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS), a roadmap for strengthening our regional economy, expanding economic opportunity, and building long-term resilience.
Our research has identified several important trends related to job growth, industry concentration, and the region’s economic competitiveness. We want to hear from the people who live, work, and do business here to better understand these findings and identify the strategies that will have the greatest impact.
What the Data shows
- The region added 100,798 jobs over the last decade, an 8% increase, but only a small share came from the traded sector. Of those new jobs, 93,904 (93.2%) were in non-traded industries and 6,894 (6.8%) were in traded industries; a 1.6% increase in traded-sector jobs overall between 2015-2025. Non-traded jobs are local-serving jobs in industries such as health care, retail, restaurants, personal services and construction. They grow as the population grows, but they mostly recirculate money already in the regional economy rather than bringing new dollars in, and many pay less and offer fewer paths to advancement than traded-sector jobs.
- Traded-sector job growth trails peer regions and the nation. Between 2020 and 2025, traded-sector employment grew 2.1% in the Portland region, compared with 10% nationally, 14.8% in the Salt Lake City metro area and 34.7% in Las Vegas. Of 12 benchmark metros, only Pittsburgh grew more slowly. The traded sector’s share of regional jobs fell from 34.3% in 2015 to 32.3% in 2025.
- The region’s target industry clusters are shrinking. Employment in the eight target traded-sector clusters fell 5.3% between 2019 and 2025. Had those clusters grown at the same rate as their industries nationally, they would have added 27,923 jobs from 2015 to 2025. They added 2,859, a shortfall of 25,064 jobs.
*Note: Data in this release covers the seven-county Greater Portland region: Clackamas, Columbia, Multnomah, Washington, and Yamhill counties in Oregon, and Clark and Skamania counties in Washington. The CEDS planning area, which GPEDD serves, includes Clackamas, Multnomah, Washington, and Clark counties.
Data and Analysis Documents
Competitive Benchmarking Analysis
Your feedback will help inform regional priorities, guide collaboration among public and private partners, and shape actions to support a more diverse, resilient, and prosperous Greater Portland economy.
This survey takes approximately 5–8 minutes to complete. Thank you for helping shape our region’s economic future.