August 2016 Oregon Regional Economic Indicators

The August 2016 Oregon Regional Economic Indicators  was released today.  Full report is available here.  We thank KeyBank for their generous support of this project.

The ongoing economic expansion continues to propel Oregon’s regional economies.  Highlights of this month’s report include:

• The measures for all regions indicate above average growth (both the “raw” June numbers and the moving average measures of activity, which smooth monthly volatility). Recall that “zero” for these measures indicates relative average growth; each region has its own underlying growth rate.
• Home permitting was neutral or supportive for most measures and only modestly negative for the Rogue Valley area. A jump in multifamily permits boosted the Salem measure. The ongoing strength in housing sales serves as a basis for further construction gains, which statewide are just now approaching average levels.
• Employment indicators generally supported the measures; the recovery has become increasingly broad-based over time with most sectors experiencing improvement. Employment in Salem was 6.1% higher than a year ago in August, surpassing that of even the Bend region rate of 5.1%.
• Broad labor market indicators such as labor force, the unemployment rate, and initial unemployment claims are almost universally supportive of the measures across regions. Municipal waste measures were widely supportive of measures as expected given solid economic growth and ongoing in-migration.