Oregon Ranked 5th Most Productive State in the U.S. Despite Being Placed 22nd When it Comes to GDP

These days, productivity can be hard to come by. We humans have a fairly special talent when it comes to wasting time. We know how to run out the clock with ease, and even when we’re trying to get stuff done, it can seem as though we’re taking too long to complete simple tasks.

Not only is it on an individual level, but a systematic one, too; you’re likely to find that some cities, or even some states, like to take their sweet time with getting things done.

What’s the cause? Or, more importantly, what is the solution?

On an individual level, you can look up a guide on how to regain your motivation, find your drive through self-discovery, or you can just move states.

That last one was kind of a joke, but some states are seen as more productive as others. In fact, according to a new ranking by My E Listing, the nation’s leading site for everything commercial real estate, Oregon is considered the 5th most productive state in the entire country, trailing behind Washington, California, Colorado, and Utah.

What makes Oregon so productive, though? And how do you even measure that sort of thing? Well I’ll give you the details of how it’s sorted and why Oregon is considered one of the most productive areas within our fifty united states.

Measuring Productivity

Productivity is not something that can be easily quantified, but My E Listing certainly makes it easy to digest and understand. According to them, productivity measures value per unit. This could be a variety of things, such as per worker, per hour worked, or really just based on the costs involved. The ranking we see put here is based on various metrics provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and organized by My E Listing from the period of 2017 to 2022.

These are the metrics used to evaluate the productivity of each state:

• Employment Rank: A measurement of people’s employment levels in relation to the population of the state.
• Real Value Added Rank: Essentially the net output of the state. This is done by subtracting the intermediate inputs from the sum of all outputs.
• Labor Productivity Rank: The output produced for every hour of labor.
• Worker Output Rank: The total output that is produced by the state’s workforce.
• Output Per Worker Rank: The average output per an individual worker.
• Hours Worked Rank: The average number of hours worked by the state’s workforce.
• Unit Labor Costs Rank: The average cost of labor necessary to produce one unit of output.
• GDP Per Capita Rank: The state’s GDP when divided by its population. This provides insight into the state’s economic health and its average income.

What Makes Oregon so Productive

So what brings Oregon to the top of the list compared to other states? Well, according to My E Listing, its strengths lie in its performance in output per worker and real value added. With output per worker, Oregon landed itself at a clear 4th place among other states, while labor productivity and worker output both got Oregon a 7th place rank, and the thing that lets Oregon sag is the fact that it’s placed 22nd when it comes to GDP.

Additionally, from 2017 to 2022, Oregon experienced a 16.8% growth in both employment and real value added. This should be of no surprise, as Oregon has been committed to economic expansion. The state also has a 12.8% labor productivity change, as well as a 14.2% rise in GDP per capita, reflecting the state’s dedication to improving efficiency within resource management and utilization.

In other words, Oregon is experiencing positive economic growth, and a very impressive one despite COVID still lingering in the empty halls of the market.

Final Thoughts

Oregon is a state that is far from perfect; anyone will tell you that. However, as we speak, the state is always improving and getting better, growing its workforce, creating more jobs for people, and getting more money. Some states can’t boast this, and certainly not to this extent. However, it also needs to be said that although Oregon got 5th place, it didn’t get 1st. That means there will always be room for improvement, and that we, the taxpayers, should always keep our standards higher so that the state will continue to do better. Oregon needs to stay at a highly productive level. High productivity means more jobs, a better economy, and, hopefully, an increase in quality of life.

Some states may disagree with some of Oregon’s laws, but the increased productivity has been nothing but a positive, so if nothing else, they must be doing something right.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering: the state with the lowest productivity is Louisiana.