{"id":466411,"date":"2026-02-13T14:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T14:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/466411\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T14:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T14:38:09","slug":"oregons-economy-has-lagged-for-decades-some-blame-a-shrinking-workforce-and-too-much-red-tape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/466411\/","title":{"rendered":"Oregon\u2019s Economy Has Lagged for Decades. Some Blame a Shrinking Workforce and Too Much Red Tape."},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was produced by the Oregon Journalism Project<\/a>, a nonprofit newsroom covering the state.<\/p>\n

When Gov. Tina Kotek convened the first meeting of her newly named Prosperity Council<\/a> on Jan. 22, she told the 16-member panel what she hoped to achieve.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goals I\u2019ve put forward\u2014about growing our GDP, creating new jobs and supporting the workforce we need for the future\u2014those are very simple goals,\u201d Kotek said. \u201cAnd they are very urgent goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

In terms of gross domestic product per capita, Oregon has lagged behind national averages for nearly two decades\u2014and the gap is getting worse.<\/p>\n

Until 2009, Oregon outperformed on that national metric: the value of everything the state produces\u2014everything from computer chips to hazelnuts\u2014divided by its population.<\/p>\n

But since then, the productivity gap has widened to nearly $25,000 per capita.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

For decades, Oregon\u2019s growing population boosted its economic outcomes. With its population stagnating, however, the state needs to shift focus to \u201cproductivity and investment,\u201d says former state economist Mark McMullen, now vice president at Common Sense Institute Oregon.<\/p>\n

Kotek hopes her Prosperity Council, led by Ampere Computing founder Renee James and Port of Portland executive director Curtis Robinhold, will come up with suggestions for how to make that happen.<\/p>\n

Oregon Business & Industry CEO Angela Wilhelms says Oregon has made it harder for existing businesses to succeed. She\u2019d like the council to cut through the red tape.<\/p>\n

Oregon is the seventh-most-regulated state<\/a> for businesses in the country, according to a report by OBI. High regulations and taxes have had many companies move out of the state after becoming licensed, according to a story by the Oregon Capital Chronicle.<\/a><\/p>\n

Many Oregon business leaders think the state government doesn\u2019t listen to them or isn\u2019t \u201cinterested in their success,\u201d Wilhelms says.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeaders have not really taken a good, holistic look at what [regulations are] doing to us as a state, economically or competitively,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

Other states have used tax breaks and credits to woo new businesses and increase GDP.<\/p>\n

Trying to get businesses in other states to move their operations to Oregon may be a lost cause, McMullen says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOregon can\u2019t offer the cheap labor that a lot of these other states can. Our wages are higher.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state needs to focus on supporting its \u201chomegrown industries,\u201d McMullen says. After Phil Knight co-founded Nike in Oregon, its success brought in other companies and services, he says.<\/p>\n

Willamette Week\u2019s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office.<\/p>\n

Support WW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was produced by the Oregon Journalism Project, a nonprofit newsroom covering the state. When Gov. Tina…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":["post-466411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}