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ECONOMY Jackson County leads regional recovery Housing-related employment again boosting the outlook Comment By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Posted Sep. 9, 2015 at 4:50 PM By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Posted Sep. 9, 2015 at 4:50 PM » Social News Jackson County has rebounded from the Great Recession better than surrounding "State of Jefferson" counties in Southern Oregon and Northern California, State Economist Mark McMullen said Wednesday. "Jackson County suffered a lot more than most, but right now has outperformed any county within this broad region," McMullen told a gathering at the University Club in Medford. "This was the epicenter of the housing downturn, along with Bend in Central Oregon. The first couple years of the recovery were really nothing, we saw no improvement whatsoever in terms of the job market. But here in the last three years for Jackson County we've seen some pretty darn good steady gains." Those gains have been spurred by a broad-based array of industries, he said. Like much of rural Oregon, Jackson County has significant housing-related employment with construction, wood products, furniture stores, building materials and garden supply stores accounting for 12.3 percent of local employment. For the state as a whole, those industries make up 10.3 percent of payroll employment. While government employment amounts to 16.5 percent of the state's employment and 24.5 percent in rural Oregon, in Jackson County government provides just 16.1 percent of employment. "Obviously, Jackson County is not as diverse as Portland, but very much more so than the rest of the region," McMullen said. Oregon's rural counties generally lose population to metropolitan cities, but Jackson County has benefited from the flow of newcomers. "Out of every 1,000 tax filers, you net another 15 or 20 from other states every year," McMullen said. "Even though you are losing population to the rest of Oregon you are offsetting that and then some. Other places hit as hard as our timber belt, losing their anchor industries in the rust belt or textile areas, they've lost population. That hasn't happened here." During every expansion since World War II, he said, Oregon's employment growth has been higher than the average for the nation. "Our problem is that we outperform during the downturns, too," he said. "That was particularly painful during this decade of the 2000s when we've had two big downturns." There are two underlying components to Oregon's traditionally strong growth during expansion years, he said. The state is aligned with manufacturing, production and resource industries, which are adding 4 percent to their payroll staff annually. "So, obviously, we have more pronounced boom and bust cycles, and that's happening even today," McMullen said. The second element of expansions in Oregon is in-migration. Real-time census data isn't available so the state relies on DMV records, school enrollment and moving van data to build a picture. "Whenever jobs are available or times are good in Oregon we get an army of folks coming up, a lot of them from California," he said. "By all accounts it looks like the flow into Oregon has ramped back up." Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 541-776-4463 or [email protected] . Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GregMTBusiness , on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/greg.stiles.31 , and read his blog at www.mailtribune.com/EconomicEdge . By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Posted Sep. 9, 2015 at 4:50 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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