By Peter Robison and Anthony Effinger

Tow-truck operator Matthew Gowen moved from Dallas to Seattle three years ago, landing a gig riding a bicycle rickshaw that he expected would be temporary.
“Here I am, still sitting on the same bike,” said Gowen, 29, shifting his pedals outside a Starbucks Corp. coffee shop in Seattle, the largest city in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, centered on Washington and Oregon states.

The region that was a darling of the 1990s, when companies including Starbucks and Microsoft Corp. hired workers by the thousands and influenced the popular culture, is still drawing migrants like Gowen, according to 2010 Census data released yesterday. It’s the jobs that are scarcer.

“People move here because they really want to live here,” said Charles Rynerson, senior demographic analyst for the Population Research Center at Portland State University, referring to the Northwest’s scenic beauty and pace of life. “To some extent they may have to accept less opportunity.”

Washington’s population increased 14.1 percent to 6,724,540 between 2000 and 2010, census data show. While that was above the national average of 9.7 percent and enough to gain an additional seat in the U.S. Congress, it was the slowest growth for the state since the 1930s.

Oregon’s population rose 12 percent to 3,831,074 since 2000, the slowest pace since the 1980s, census figures show.

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‘Level of Debt’

“It’s not Michigan; we’ve been a pretty attractive place,” McIntire said in an interview. “But in the past decade, we’re reached a level of debt that’s going to require that we exercise greater fiscal discipline.”

So far, income growth has compensated for the borrowing and helped maintain the state’s bond rating. Total income in the state rose 45 percent since 2000, 5 percent faster than the nation, McIntire said in a December report.

Moody’s Investors Service rates Washington’s bonds Aa1, the second-highest rating. Standard & Poor’s also has assigned Washington its second-highest rating, AA+.

There are signs that employment is stabilizing now, and the state will benefit from higher exports of agricultural goods and airplanes because of a weaker dollar, said Arun Raha, the chief economist for the state of Washington.

“We’re lagging the nation, but we’ll catch up,” Raha said. “I think by 2012 we’ll be ahead of the nation.”
Balancing on his rickshaw in downtown Seattle, Gowen said he’s come to another conclusion about his adopted state after sending out dozens of applications for jobs that might offer medical benefits and pay more than $3 a ride.

“It’s a great place. We’re just overpopulated.”


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...-maturity.html