Oregon and Washington Lead the Nation in Residential Construction Employment Concentration — But Rural Counties Are Carrying the Load

New data from the National Association of Home Builders reveals a striking geographic pattern in residential construction employment across the Pacific Northwest: in Oregon, 92.6% of counties had residential construction employment above the national share — the third highest rate in the country — while Washington’s 91.3% ranked fourth, reflecting how deeply homebuilding is embedded in the economic fabric of communities across both states, far beyond the major metros. This is more prominent in the West, with home building accounting for a major share of the local economy in the vast majority of counties in both states — a pattern that holds even as residential construction employment continues to decline for the 15th consecutive year nationally, reflecting the long-term structural underbuilding that has produced the 4.7 million unit national housing deficit. For rural and small-city contractors in Oregon and Washington, this data confirms what they experience daily — residential construction is a cornerstone of the local economy in ways that metro-focused policy conversations often miss. And for state and federal policymakers, it underscores why housing production reform affects communities far beyond Portland and Seattle.

https://www.probuilder.com/nahb/news/55389725/where-residential-construction-employment-is-thriving