Employment

New Report Details – Paid Family, Medical, and Safe Leave Impacts in Oregon

August 13, 2023

The following is a summary of findings from our latest report. For more details, read the full report, or get the top takeaways from the report in the podcast. Paid Leave Oregon will provide paid leave time for parents bonding with new children, serious health conditions experienced by workers or their families, or…

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Oregon’s Leisure and Hospitality Industry

August 13, 2023

Leisure and hospitality businesses employed 198,200 workers on average in 2022, up from 162,200 workers in 2020. Of those, roughly one out of nine jobs were in accommodations, slightly less than in arts, entertainment, and recreation where about one in eight leisure and hospitality industry jobs were. About three-fourths of…

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Rogue Valley Travel Impacts 2022

July 16, 2023

Preliminary data for 2022 from a Dean Runyan Associates study for the Oregon Tourism Commission shows that total direct travel spending in Oregon rose 23.2% in 2022 compared with the 2021 figure. Travel spending rose from $11.0 billion in 2021 to $13.9 billion in 2022 and was $1.1 billion above…

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Oregon’s Unemployment Rate Drops to 3.7% in May

July 16, 2023

Oregon’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.7% in May, down from 4.0% in April. This was the fourthconsecutive monthly drop in the unemployment rate, down from a recent high of 4.8% in January. TheMay rate was similar to rates in February through May 2022, when it ranged from 3.5% to 3.7%.Oregon’s…

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10-Year Occupational Projections for STEM Jobs

June 10, 2023

Twenty-three percent of jobs in Oregon fall into the STEM category (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). You can view the relationship between employment and wages of STEM occupations with the career explorer tool on QualityInfo.org. Chances are, you have heard the term STEM, but exactly what is a STEM job? Several definitions…

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A Closer Look at Oregon’s Median Household Income

June 10, 2023

Oregon’s median household income reached $81,149 in 2021, which is higher than the U.S. median household income of $70,985. Median household income is an important reflection of economic well-being that’s based on the multiple income streams of people who live together. It can be used to compare the income of…

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Oregon’s Forestry and Logging Industry: From Planting to Harvest

June 10, 2023

Oregon is one of the world’s great tree-growing areas. The state’s soils and climate provide ideal conditions to grow such commercially viable species as Douglas fir and ponderosa pine. Forests cover more than 30 million of Oregon’s 62 million acres – almost half of the state’s landmass. The Oregon Department…

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Oregon’s Part-Time Workers: One-Fifth of Employment in 2022

May 11, 2023

Although most people work in full-time jobs, around 19% of employed Oregonians usually worked part-time schedules in 2022. People work part time for a variety of reasons. Part-time jobs offer flexibility for some who seek a job that fits their circumstances, such as students, those looking for additional income from…

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Oregon’s Aging Workforce by Industry and County in 2021

May 11, 2023

Oregon’s workforce is aging. The number of Oregon jobs held by workers age 55 and over more than tripled from 1992 to 2021, while their total number of jobs grew by slightly more than half (51%). Workers 55 years and over held 10% of all jobs in 1992. By 2021,…

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Welding – Beyond the Sparks and the Arc

April 9, 2023

What do skyscrapers, automobiles, rockets, and ships have in common? In all likelihood, they have all been welded. According to the American Welding Society, an estimated 50% of the United States gross national product is affected by welding. Anything made of metal, no matter how big or small, can be welded.…

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Oregon Hourly Earnings Zoom Higher

April 9, 2023

Earnings in Oregon increased sharply over the past year, surpassing the high rate of inflation. Total private average hourly earnings increased by 9.1% between February 2022 and February 2023. This growth rate was much higher than the comparable national growth in private earnings of 4.6% in that same 12-month period,…

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January 2023 Employment and Unemployment in Oregon’s Counties

March 8, 2023

In January, unemployment rates increased in 27 of Oregon’s counties over the month, remained constant in seven, and decreased in two. Seventeen counties had unemployment rates at or below the statewide unemployment rate of 4.8%, and one county had a rate at or below the U.S. rate of 3.4%. Grant…

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