Jobs for Today. Jobs for Tomorrow.

A Strategy for Oregon’s Economic Prosperity

The current recession has cast a harsh light on a perennial Oregon problem: our state remains trapped in a “boom and bust” pattern that makes us oversensitive to national and global economic dislocations. The effects are felt throughout the state: high unemployment, stagnant personal income and repeated funding crises for public services like education, health care and transportation – services that form the foundation of a strong, competitive economy.

Breaking this cycle is the single most immediate and important issue facing Oregon. We have many of the ingredients necessary for a strong, resilient economy, but there are critical gaps, and a need to put these elements together as a strategy.

The Goal

An Oregon economy that:

• Is strong, diversified, globally competitive and recession resistant.
• Reaches across urban and rural Oregon to increase per capita income in each region of our state above the national average.
• Generates enough family wage jobs to keep Oregon’s unemployment rate consistently below the national average.
• Generates public revenue sufficient to support the services necessary to ensure the health, safety and social and economic success of Oregonians.

The Strategy

1. Act on immediate opportunities to stimulate job growth. Strengthening and transforming Oregon’s economy will require a sustained long-term effort but we first need to deal with the immediate problems of the thousands of Oregonians who are trying to get by in today’s recession.

2. Diversify Oregon’s economy with a new framework for economic development. This entails a 4-part economic strategy that addresses our place in the global economy; strengthens economic activity within our borders; and stimulates innovation and research that establish Oregon as a leader in technology and knowledge-based exports.

3. Create the fundamental conditions for long-term job creation and prosperity. Achieving these conditions will require transformational changes in a number of major systems including education, public finance, health care and energy. This should start with turning the Oregon Business Plan into a set of specific actions.

Specific Actions

Immediate Job Creation

• Access to Capital. Help companies access the capital they need to grow.
• Promote Energy Efficiency that creates immediate jobs; saves money that can be reinvested in the Oregon economy and reduces global warming.
• Invest in transportation infrastructure that creates immediate jobs and provides the underpinning of any successful economy.
• Put people back to work in rural communities by aggressively pursuing environmentally responsible forest thinning which can improve forest health and produce “woody biomass” that can be used for renewable energy.
• Connect Oregonians to work through training for high-demand jobs, such as health care workers, technicians and welders.
• Aggressive business retention and recruitment. Oregon has fallen behind other states in the “nuts and bolts” of basic business retention and recruitment.

Diversify Oregon’s Economy with a Four-Part Economic Development Strategy

To make Oregon’s economy more resilient, stable and resistant to global and national fluctuations, we must organize economic development efforts around the following framework:

• Oregon to the World – Sustain and attract “traded sector” businesses that bring additional jobs and dollars into our state and local economies. Build integrated clusters of companies in industries where Oregon has unique resources, capabilities and talents.
• Oregon to Oregon – Emphasize the use of Oregon-based companies to supply other Oregon companies. Local sourcing and supply chains re-circulate capital within the state and strengthen Oregon businesses and the Oregon economy.
  
• Home to Oregon – Oregon’s households, neighborhoods and communities (the community sector) present a tremendous, under-developed opportunity to spur Oregon’s recovery and to hedge against downturns in the business cycle.
  
• Oregon Leads – Oregon is well positioned to leverage its leadership in innovation, creativity and sustainability into addressing key global challenges through a new business cluster focused on ecosystem technology and knowledge-based exports.

Create the Fundamental Conditions for Long-Term Job Creation and Prosperity

John Kitzhaber helped launch the Oregon Business Plan in 2002 during the last recession. Before that, Oregon had no comprehensive plan to create jobs and grow its economy. Now Oregon has a bi-partisan strategic framework developed by Oregon’s top business executives, elected officials and community leaders to create a stronger, more competitive and robust Oregon economy. Creating the conditions for long term job creation and prosperity requires that we turn key elements of the Oregon Business Plan into a set of specific actions. These include:

• Reforming education from pre-school through postsecondary education.
• Create an environment that fosters innovation, research and productivity.
• Restructure our public finance system to make it more stable and rational.