October 2018 Regional Economic Indicators

Good morning. Below is the University of Oregon Regional Economic Indexes for October 2018. The release date is today January 11, 2018. We thank KeyBank for their generous support of this project.

Notice Regarding Government Shutdown:

The partial government shutdown has delayed the release of some statistics that feed into the indicators published here. I will be working to bring new updates as quickly as possible when the shutdown ends. Apologies for the delay.

Link to full report (with charts) here.

Oregon Regional Economic Indicators:

Major regional economies in Oregon continued to enjoy solid growth in the final months of 2018. Highlights of this month’s report include:

  • For all regions covered by this report, the raw and moving average measures (which smooth monthly volatility) were above zero, indicating an above-trend pace of activity (trend activity differs across regions) in October.
  • Housing permits in both the Eugene-Springfield and Rogue Valley areas made substantial positive contributions on the back of likely temporary spikes of multifamily permits; remaining regions saw neutral to slightly positive contributions. Residential housing sales firmed a bit in October.
  • The Eugene-Springfield measure received a boost from a large contribution from the municipal waste component. This is a temporary gain associated with the clean-up of a fuel spill in late October and early November and is consequently not associated with a change in the underlying pace of economic activity in the region.
  • Labor markets remain strong. Exceptionally low unemployment rates continued to support the regional indexes while low initial unemployment claims indicate that job growth is likely to continue in the coming months.

Media Contacts:
Tim Duy – 541.346.4660 (w)

duy@uoregon.edu