The July 2017 Oregon Regional Economic Indicators was released today. Full report is available here. We thank KeyBank for their generous support of this project.
Idiosyncratic shocks to underlying index components created a volatile month for the regional measures of activity. Highlights of this month’s report include:
- Weakness in some employment components were a drag on the Portland metro measure, but broad labor market indicators remain supportive. New housing permits, employment construction, and housing sales helped boost the measure.
- The Eugene-Springfield measure extended its recent gains, although the large boost from the waste component is likely an anomaly. Still, other components were mostly positive to neutral, with only housing permits showing weakness.
- Central Oregon maintains a pace of activity largely consistent with the strong showing since 2015. The Rogue Valley measure continued the upward momentum evident this year, supported by very low unemployment and strong labor force growth.
- The Salem measure jumped higher, but this likely overstates the region’s strength as it was driven by a likely temporary rise in multifamily housing permits. Still, the region continues to enjoy a solid underlying growth trend.
