Portland Competes with SunBelt for Net Newcomers While Employment Stagnates

An analysis by Joel Kotkin on newgeography.com cites Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, Oregon as 4th of the 29 largest US metro areas in 2006-2008 at 8.2 per thousand total population.  This ranking places Portland in the midst of cities known for their rapid growth, such as Phoenix, San Antonio, Dallas, Denver and Houston.

The 2000-2008 version of these figures put the area 8th at 6.2 per thousand.   Metro area employment, however, shrunk by 0.2% in a similar period, Q3 2000-Q3 2009.  Figures are from the US Census and Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) .  Image © BrokenSphere / Wikimedia Commons.

Also according to the BLS, the Portland metro area's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 10.9% in September, 2009.  What do you think can or should be done about this imbalance of newcomers and job creation?