September 5, 2020: Windows onto Imperative #4, the Local Economy -

Christian Kaylor, a workforce economist for the state of Oregon, puts out a monthly report on Multnomah County Economic Indicators. It is usually one page, two at most, and I highly recommend it if you are interested in such things.  Given that our economy is shaky (and yes, the economy is not the stock market), it will be good to have a window into what’s happening locally.

Kaylor pulls out a few numbers each month that are of particular interest, and illustrates them with a chart, as here:

March and April saw the Portland economy lose 14 percent of all jobs. Since April, we’ve recovered about 38 percent of the jobs lost.

This month he looked at employment and job growth by industry sector, at housing prices, and at working from home. There were nine short sections, everything on one page. You can get the monthly email by writing to him and asking to be put on the distribution list, which feels like a strangely personal and low-tech way to get at government info, and a bit charming for that reason:  Christian.R.Kaylor@oregon.gov

Here’s the attachment. 

I’ve been getting the newsletters since the last recession, and I look forward to them, honestly. They are short and sweet, and once a month is no burden. 

Kaylor is also on Twitter @KaylorChristian. His pinned tweet there is a map showing, by zip code, where there are school-age kids without internet access or a computer. Over all, that describes 7% of metro area school children, though in some spots, it’s much higher:  19% in Estacada 24% in Gresham, 30% in Milwaukie Heights, 32% in Hillsboro.  

The first time I saw the map, I felt a jolt of fear - what are we going to do? It’s hard to think about, but he makes it easy to see.