Oregon has regained all the jobs it lost during the Great Recession. But that doesn’t mean the economy has completely recovered — because Oregon’s population has also grown.
So the state introduced a new economic measure Tuesday called: ‘The Jobs Gap."
‘The Jobs Gap" looks at the actual number of jobs in a region and compares it with the number of jobs needed to keep pace with population.
“It’s important to take into account the increase in the population when you’re talking about the state of the economy and whether we’re back to something called ‘full employment,’ which is a point in the economy cycle when pretty much anyone who wants a job is able to find one,” said Josh Lehner, with the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis.
The new "Jobs Gap" numbers show two Oregon regions have slightly more jobs than employers can fill: those are Portland and the North Coast.
The rest of the state has more job seekers than openings.
The state as whole has a "Jobs Gap" number of minus 0.8 percent.