Oregon Office of Economic Analysis

Across Oregon, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there are 230 working economists based on the 2016 2017 occupational data. Of course the job title of economist is a limited set. There are nearly 20,000 Oregonians working in analyst positions and many more that involve data, analysis, and the like. However, as I am updating some data on young college migrants, I thought I should look at those with an actual degree in economics. What the latest ACS data shows is that there are about 8,000 young Oregon economists in the state. And in keeping with Oregon’s overall trends, in the typical year we see positive net migration. More young adults with an economics degree move into Oregon than move out of Oregon.

As an aside, when digging into these young college graduates a bit further and looking across all degrees, it shows that those moving out of Corvallis and Eugene are split about 75/25 in terms of moving to somewhere else in Oregon versus those leaving the state entirely. Those with a scientific, technical, or medical degree were a bit more likely to stick around in Oregon than those with other types of degrees. And economics majors were also a little less likely to stay in Oregon, although the sample size is small enough the differences are unlikely to be statistically significant.

Finally, I’d like to give a special shout-out to the Oregonian in the data who has a degree in economics from a business school, and another degree in economics from the social sciences. Not all heroes wear capes.