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Downtown job growth falling behind surrounding counties, Portland Business Alliance says

The Portland Business Alliance and Downtown Portland Clean & Safe have released their 2023 state of the economy report.

PORTLAND, Ore. — It's been nearly three years since the pandemic began, and downtown Portland is still struggling to bring people back and keep businesses from leaving. That’s according to a new report from the Portland Business Alliance and Downtown Portland Clean & Safe. 

The two organizations released their annual state of the economy report Tuesday, which concludes that more would-be visitors are steering clear of Portland's downtown, and more businesses are packing up.

"The pandemic has certainly adversely impacted the region and one of the takeaways is the performance of downtown Portland, lagging behind other parts of the region," said Michael Wilkerson, the director of analytics for EcoNorthwest, which produced the report.

The report shows that the Portland job growth has taken a hit from pre-pandemic levels, and foot traffic is down nearly 50 percent compared to where it was just a couple of years ago, Wilkerson said.

"The city and (Multnomah) County had negative population growth for the first time since the 1980s," he said. "This is a big change from what we saw from the previous decade."

Washington County, Clackamas County and Clark County in Southwest Washington are the new regional growth hotspots, he said. 

The emptiness of downtown Portland can be glaring, especially the vacant office space, but KGW spoke with one business owner who said he's seeing things start to bounce back.

"We're doing really well actually, doing better than 2019," said Steven Lien, the owner of UnderU4men in downtown. He’s the president and CEO of the company, and has been in downtown Portland for nearly two decades. 

The past couple years haven't been easy, he said, but he kept up in part by making changes to what he sells in his shop.

"We sell resort wear now, we have shorts year round now," he said. That means customers can now purchase swim trunks along with socks, underwear and skin care products for men.

Despite the report showing the city has a long way to go, Lien said he's optimistic that downtown Portland is slowly turning the tide.

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