Final Environmental Impact Statement - New Federal Courthouse

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Socioeconomics Affected Environment Socioeconomic information presented in this section is based primarily on published data from the U. S. Census and state of Oregon documents. Additional information was gathered from the cities of Eugene and Springfield, and from Lane County. During the past two decades, Oregon's economy has reduced its dependence on natural resources, especially forest products, and increased its industrial diversity. Following the economic downturn of the 1980s, the state's high unemployment rate decreased toward the national average unemployment rate, and the state's low per capita income increased toward the national average per capita income (Lane County 1999). The increase in Oregon's industrial base has increased the wages, employment, and population in the state's more urban counties, especially those in the Willamette Valley (Lane County 1999). In 1998, after 6 years of rapid economic growth, Oregon began to feel the effects of the Asian financial crisis that started in late 1997. Trade with Asia is a larger share of total foreign trade for Oregon than it is for most other states. Oregon's exports of agricultural products and lumber and wood products in early 1998 were substantially lower than in prior-years. As expected, national and state growth was slow in 1999 but recovered during the later part of the year and the first quarter of 2000. The economy of Oregon appears to have recovered from the Asian financial crisis, according to the Oregon Department of Administrative Services (2000). Annualized job growth in the state was 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 1999 and 2.7 percent during the first quarter of 2000 (Oregon Department of Administrative Services 2000). Population '' Oregon's population grew rapidly during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. Between 1990 and 1997, the state population grew from 2,842,321 to an estimated 3,217,000. This ;- represents a 1.8 percent annual growth rate, almost double the national growth rate. Seventy percent of this growth came from people moving into the state (Lane County 1999). j ,. As shown in Table 6, the population of Eugene increased from 112,669 to 129,300 between 1990 ~__ and 1997. The population of Springfield increased from 44,664 to 50,670 during the same period. The population of both Eugene and Springfield grew at faster annual rates (2.10 percent and 1.91 percent, respectively) than Lane County as a whole (1.29 percent), which indicates that ~` population growth is focused on urban portions of the county. New Federal Courthouse 105 Final EIS