Oregon Total GSP

Total gross state product is the sum of all products sold and distributed in Oregon during a year. This is usually used to indicate the size of the economy, which includes all private sector transactions along with government spending such as school spending, infrastructure spending, and health care spending. Although the economy took a slight dip during the recession, the economy has been increasing steadily over the last few years.

GSP Growth

GSP growth measures how much total GSP has increases from one year to the next. This measure shows the state of the economy as opposed to the size. The state of the economy is a vital factor because it shows, especially after coming out of a recession, how fast the economy is recovering. In this regard, Oregon had the 2nd highest growth rate of all states in 2011. This shows that the Oregon economy has been one of the fastest economies to start to recover from the recession, and is in great position to improve in the future. This prospect for growth will help make Oregon more competitive and could sway more companies and high skilled workers to relocate or expand into Oregon.

GSP Per Capita

GSP per capita shows how much GSP the state has per person. This statistic is used to show the efficiency of the economy. This is an equalizer in terms of big states and small states, and can show how effective the economy is at maximizing its labor force and machinery to produce more output per person. As of 2011, the Oregon GSP per capita was ranked 11th in the nation. This shows that, per person, Oregon has an above average efficiency but has room for improvement in this respect. The trend has also moved upwards and recently overtook Washington which historically has had a larger GSP per capita than Oregon.

Unemployment

At 8.9 as of August 2012, Oregon's unemployment has lagged behind most states since the recession hit. This could be caused by a decline in housing and other related industries, or by an ineffective government response to the recession. This is one of the biggest challenges for the Oregon economy moving forward and must be discussed by our legislature in the near future in order to turn this number around, and put Oregonians back to work.

Household Income

Household Income has been one of the indicators in Oregon that has made the best improvements since the recession hit, almost back to pre-recession levels. However, ranked as 23rd in the nation, Oregon has a lot of improvements it could make to increase these numbers and give middle income families more financial security and purchasing power. This starts with increasing the number of high skill jobs available in Oregon, and moving towards our 40-40-20 goal for education which would create a more skilled workforce to fill these job vacancies.

Employment by Business Size

Due to Oregon's high levels of manufacturing companies, our employment is largely reliant on big businesses. With over 3/4 of our private sector employment coming from businesses with over 20 employees it is important for us to attract these types of companies to Oregon and to implement legislation that is friendly to businesses that are such a large part of our economy.

Exports as % of GSP

The Oregon Economy is closely tied with its exports. Almost 10% of all GSP comes from Oregon exports. Although this lags significantly behind Washington's 18%, it remains a significant portion of our total GSP and should be considered an important factor when discussing Oregon's policy towards bringing in and keeping businesses with large export potential.

Export Employment

Export employment shows how much of Oregon's employment is being employed directly by the export market. This percentage does not, however, include all of the employees that work for companies that export from Oregon. If this percentage were to include all employees of companies that export it would be significantly higher. Although Oregon is below Washington in this figure, more employees are employed by exports here than in most of our geographically competitive states, and also the United States as a whole.

Oregon Exports by Sector

Oregon's export market is dominated by the manufacturing sector. Led by the high technology sector which manufactures computer and electronic products, the future of the Oregon export economy will have a large emphasis on the manufacturing sector. Besides agricultural products, that consist of all farming and forestry exports, manufacturing in chemical, machinery, and transportation make up the other large export sectors in the Oregon economy.