The federal poverty level has been criticized for being an out of date and an inaccurate measure of poverty that overlooks a number of families who are experiencing economic distress. The Self-Sufficiency Standard developed by Dr. Diana Pearce at UW offers a more realistic view of what it takes to get by in Oregon and shows us who is getting by and who is not.
The US economy continues to deteriorate at a pace not seen in generations. Portland is one of the areas of the US experiencing unusually high unemployment rates and job losses. By the spring of 2009, the Portland Metro area has lost almost 60,000 jobs since the end of 2007. As we continue into the rest of 2009, those job losses are likely to increase.
What is a prosperous business? This article examines productivity, entrepreneurship, and the ingredients of innovation for businesses in the Portland Metropolitan Region: venture capital investment, patenting, educational attainment, and job growth.
Prosperity refers to the economic success of the regional economy; we use several economic measures to compare Portland to other similar Metro Regions.
This chart shows the percentage of households that do not make enough money to meet their basic needs, as defined by the Self Sufficiency Standard, by level of education, race, and gender.
The Metropolitan Knowledge Network is a timely collection of articles written about the Portland Metro Region and its national and international context. MKN also provides interactive tools for graphing and tabulating the data used in these articles.
