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Portland has many promising traded sector industry clusters, including Green Cities, Athletic & Outdoor, Metals & Machinery, and Food & Beverage Manufacturing. It also has cross-cutting functional clusters around headquarters, software and professional services that intersect with and support these key clusters.  Together, these clusters offer major growth opportunities – some in established, growing industries (e.g., Athletic & Outdoor, Software), some more emergent (e.g., Green Cities innovations around grid modernization), and others in legacy industries with a strong employment base and lower barrier to entry positions (e.g. Metals & Machinery).

While growth of higher wage, knowledge industry jobs is certainly a positive economic sign, we’re also seeing how growth in this “next economy” is contributing to the disappearance of the middle class, with a relatively flat level of growth in middle-wage employment opportunities. And when we divide Portlanders into five income quintiles, we see the stark impact of systemic racism and inequitable opportunities.