Its a little difficult to see growth as a positive, if you've been a long term Portland resident
Lived here my whole life, and am glad to see the growth! Of course, I'm also concerned about how we as a community are choosing our representation...because we have to be careful about how we manage that growth and our local and state govt enacting policy is the way we achieve responsible growth.
Oregon and Portland have often suffered from a pretty small and stagnant economy...I remember a lot of my friends having to move away as a kid because their parents were laid off from mills etc.
When I was a kid, I swore up and down that I'd never want to work with technology. I had two jobs I wanted: Build tree forts for a living, or if that didn't pan out, I'd be a mechanic.
I remember my mom saying all the jobs when I grow up would involve computers.
I countered with "I'll be a mechanic then. Cars don't need computers so I'll never have to touch them".
I hated that she made me focus on learning to type at school, and learning how programs worked (something she didn't know anything about-we didn't own a computer until I was mostly through HS and a friend gave us an old IBM 3270), because I had no interest in computers (I honestly really don't care much about them still...but we're quite fortunate for all we're able to do with them, of course).
She made me read books about BASIC, checked out from the library, instead of the Chilton manuals or car magazines that I preferred to check out. I learned MS-DOS, very begrudgingly (I did like where in the world is Carmen Sandiego, though).
I started out working on a farm, then got a job as a laborer/apprentice in construction, then worked as a grocery stock clerk, next as a dock clerk/shipping and receiving laborer, then in auto body repair, then as a shop administrator, then IT, and then into systems engineering.
All of that was in response to changing economy and my own developing interests and personal needs.
I'm not a big "bootstraps" guy, because not everyone seems to be able to do whatever it takes to get or stay ahead in every situation....but, if a kid can go from sitting in a potato planter with a sharpened tool handle (operating as a human anti jamming mechanism) to where I am now, I think a lot of others can too.
It takes time, though. Not everyone has that, or not everyone is used to that.
...I know this is all sounding like an Abe Simpson style rant, but the point I'm trying to make is that growing economies allow people to make something of themselves.
"it gets better".
You do have to choose something and pursue it to take advantage of a growing population. Right now, I'd recommend a trade. Trades were on the decline for a long time, but now there are good wages to be had (this will, of course, change during our next economic downturn...but layoffs will happen in offices too).