November 2019 Oregon Regional Economic Indicators

Good morning. Below is the University of Oregon Regional Economic Indexes for November 2019. The release date is January 17, 2020. We thank KeyBank for their generous support of this project.

Link to full report (with charts!) here.

Oregon Regional Economic Indicators:
Oregon’s largest metropolitan regions continued to post economic gains in November although the pace of activity cooled a bit compared to October. Highlights of this month’s report include:

• For all regions covered by this report, both raw and moving average measures (which smooth monthly volatility) were above zero, indicating an above-trend pace of activity (trend activity differs across regions).
• A slowdown in the new home permitting was a drag on all regions except Salem. Salem saw a large positive contribution from permits attributable to a surge in the volatile multifamily segment of the housing market.
• Employment gains were muted across most regions and consequently many sectors made neutral to negative employment contributions. The trade, transportation, and utilities sector was a particular drag on the numbers.
• Still, there were notable exceptions. The leisure and hospitality sector was particularly strong in the Rogue Valley and Central Oregon measures, while the Portland area metro received a boost from solid construction employment numbers.

Media Contacts:
Tim Duy – 541.346.4660 (w)