At a business summit in Portland Tuesday, Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber urged business executives not to forget about those left behind in the state's economic recovery.
The state's unemployment rate is a full three percentage points lower than when the Democrat took office four years ago. But Kitzhaber said the recovery still hasn't brought prosperity to many Oregonians.
"It's not that we aren't creating well-paying jobs,” the governor said. “We are. We're just not creating them fast enough to replace the well-paying jobs that we lost during the Great Recession."
Kitzhaber said poverty and unemployment rates remain especially high in rural Oregon.
The governor will take the oath of office next Monday for his fourth term as the state's chief executive.