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WEB EXCLUSIVE

Oregon Enjoys Steady Job Growth

Oregon’s continuing job growth has propelled it to the “top 10 list” of states for job creation. The state’s September jobs report shows a gain of 13,800 jobs, and a seasonal gain of 700 manufacturing jobs.

“For the past three and half years, I’ve worked to build an economy that is strong, competitive and fair,” says Governor Ted Kulongoski. “Our efforts are paying off. We have a growing economy, and more Oregonians are working than ever before. I will continue my efforts to expand our economy, diversify our industries and boost the skills of our workforce. My goal is to ensure that everyone gets a chance to succeed and prosper.”

The September jobs report from the Oregon Employment Department shows a gain of 13,800 jobs, which is 3,900 jobs more than the “seasonally adjusted” number expected at this time of year.

Gov. Kulongoski notes that Oregon continues to buck the national trend in manufacturing, which is the greatest source of family-wage jobs in Oregon’s economy. The jobs report shows a seasonal gain of 700 manufacturing jobs. As of August, the latest month for which national data are available, Oregon ranked sixth of the 50 states for job growth in manufacturing, and 10th for jobs overall, since January 2003.

The Employment Department’s report also showed that the unemployment rate declined from 5.5% to 5.4%. Since January 2003, the number of jobs in Oregon has increased by 8.5%, adding 134,900 new positions to Oregon’s economy.

“Our growing economy is no accident,” says Gov. Kulongoski, citing Oregon’s $2.5-billion bonding program to upgrade roads and bridges, which he shepherded through the legislature in 2003. A catalyst for more new jobs is the “Connect Oregon” program, which will shortly start making improvements to rail facilities, airports, ports and mass transit.

Also, by doubling the Oregon Opportunity Grants, the state will give more than 60,000 Oregonians the opportunity to go to college, community college, or skills training. The governor’s new plan to help middle-class families pay the cost of higher education—the “Shared Responsibility” program—will further improve the employment picture.

“These important investments support the growth and success of our high-performance industries, such as manufacturing and technology development, while creating more learning and earning potential for all our citizens and all our communities,” says Gov. Kulongoski. “We’ve made a strong effort to stimulate international trade, and we now have the highest level of exports in our state’s history.”

The state has also moved forward in making industrial sites ready for development, providing attractive opportunities for new businesses and industries to relocate, while helping existing ones expand.

“This year, we’ll reach our goal of 50 new sites—which we expect will generate 1,200 new jobs and more than $250 million in new investment in Oregon,” says Gov. Kulongoski. “But we need many more of these project-ready sites, and we need them quickly. We’ll work hard to answer that critical need.”

In September, Gov. Kulongoski announced grants of $499,962 to strengthen partnerships in workforce training. The grants will go to the Northwest High Performance Enterprise Consortium to increase manufacturing productivity, cost savings, and workforce preparation.

The state’s key manufacturing industries—including high tech manufacturing, transportation equipment, metals, food processing, wood and paper products—employ a workforce of more than 150,000 and a payroll of approximately $8 billion dollars. The strategic manufacturing plan helps grow the manufacturing sector and train Oregon workers to maximize productivity, innovation and global competitiveness. Last year, the governor appointed a 12-member Manufacturing Workforce Committee to develop a strategy and action plan to work on these goals. Key partners in the grant are Worksystems, Inc. and the Oregon Manufacturing Extension Partnership. The partnership will help expand and connect the work of manufacturing coalitions around the state, such as Gateway Consortium, Manufacturing 21, RV Consortium, Semiconductor Workforce Consortium and others.

The first phase of Oregon’s Manufacturing Workforce Strategy focuses on three areas:

  • Competitive Workplaces: Support for the development of high-performance learning networks—consortia of manufacturers with a desire to “cooperate to compete” by learning and sharing strategies of lean manufacturing and other innovation-rich management and production methods. This will result in 20–30 additional Oregon companies engaging in high performance training.
  • Productive Workers: Ensuring a workforce—current and future—with the skills employers need to operate in high performance workplaces. Likely to impact 500–750 additional workers.
  • Manufacturing Communication: Promoting and/or organizing: (1) the importance of manufacturing to the state’s economy; (2) value of adopting high performance work practices in the workplace (3) opportunities for high-wage careers to potential workers.

“The single greatest challenge our members have is attracting a skilled workforce, and I appreciate the Governor’s leadership and work in investing in workforce productivity and preparation,” says Norm Eder, Executive Director of the Manufacturing 21 Coalition.

The strategy will build a pipeline of highly skilled workers for the estimated 50,000-60,000 manufacturing job openings across economic clusters in the next seven years. Last year, manufacturing jobs in Oregon increased 0.7% while they declined nationally 1.0%

“Oregon’s strategic location and infrastructure upgrades are helping businesses get products to market more quickly,” says the Governor. “But to stay competitive, we must invest in critical workforce training for our state.”