Commuting in Northwest Oregon
September 14, 2020 Many people commute to work in the same county in which they live, and that seems to be the case in Benton, Clatsop, Lincoln, and Tillamook counties, but it’s not true in Columbia County. Columbia County’s proximity to the rest of the Portland metro area makes it easy for residents to work in those adjacent counties, and most do so.In all counties the recorded work location of residents is often determined by where their paychecks are processed. This is not always the same as their physical worksite. Workers may telecommute, have mobile worksites, or have paychecks processed at a distant headquarters. The following tables show the recorded worksite of the working residents of each county in 2015, but keep in mind that the worker counts in distant locations may be overstated.
Corvallis not only dominates Benton County’s economy, it provides employment for thousands of commuters from surrounding counties. This is thanks in large part to the presence of Oregon State University, Hewlett-Packard, and Samaritan Health Services and their thousands of jobs. As a result of this job availability, a little more than half of the county’s residents who worked did so in the county, and 41 percent worked in just Corvallis. Residents who commuted out of the county to work tended to head to neighboring Linn County and its cities of Albany and Lebanon. Other commuters head up and down I-5 to Salem, Eugene, and Portland employers.



Newport is the county seat and largest city, and it has the largest share of jobs in the county. Lincoln City could arguably be the largest city on a nice summer weekend due to its influx of visitors. The city’s travel industry provides many jobs and makes it the county’s second-largest job market.
Although the records indicate that more than 1,000 residents commute to Portland for work, it’s probably not the case that they are all driving the two-plus hours each way every day. This is likely a case when the data overstate the actual commuting. Some of these Lincoln County residents are almost certainly working remotely for Portland companies or have their paychecks processed in Portland.

