Executive Summary. In May 2008, there were an estimated 10,924 job vacancies in the TOC/OWA region.

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1 Oregon Job Job in the TOC/OWA Region Dallas Fridley, Regional Economist, (541) About the Survey Helping Oregonians find good jobs requires taking a close look at the staffing needs of business. Every job opening represents an opportunity for someone to gain experience, begin a career, or supplement their family s income. Which businesses are hiring? What positions are going unfilled? Why are companies having difficulty filling these positions? The May 2008 Job Vacancy Survey was designed to help answer these questions. Thousands of firms in The Oregon Consortium/Oregon Workforce Alliance (TOC/OWA) region were contacted about their immediate workforce needs and the nature of current job openings. Essentially, we asked area businesses if they had a Help Wanted sign in the window and to tell us a little bit about their job openings. The goal is to help all the partners in the economy businesses, schools, training providers, policy makers, and job seekers see where the available workforce may be falling short. Asking about the workforce needs of TOC/OWA region businesses is the first step in an ongoing process to improve awareness of available jobs in the community. The next steps are to listen to and understand what local businesses are saying and to work together to address challenges. The objective of the survey, and this report, is to contribute to that process. Executive Summary In May 2008, there were an estimated 10,924 job vacancies in the TOC/OWA region. About 15 percent of those job vacancies went unfilled for two months or longer. Many occupations had vacancies. The 25 occupations with the most vacancies represented 58 percent of all area job vacancies, and the top two farmworkers and laborers (1,266 openings) and packers and packagers (932 openings) represented one in five vacancies. Labor demands vary by season, especially in agriculture, forestry, and fishing. Although that industry commanded nearly 22 percent of all job vacancies in May 2008, the percent would change considerably in a month like December. Accommodation and food services also has a seasonal influence, and while it commanded more than 18 percent of the TOC/OWA region s job vacancies in May, its hiring needs vary with the seasonal influence of tourism. Health care and social assistance ranked third with close to 15 percent of all job vacancies, followed by educational services at 10 percent and manufacturing, with nearly 9 percent. Educational services had the highest requirement for education beyond high school and the need for licensing or certification. Health care showed a high requirement for education beyond high school at October percent and an even greater need for licensing or certification. These higher-than-typical educational requirements add to the difficulty in filling vacancies. Of the vacancies with wage information, less than 10 percent paid a wage of at least $20 an hour, while nearly two-thirds paid less than $10 an hour. Top 25 Jobs in Demand The top jobs in demand in the TOC/ OWA region are spread across a diverse range of wages, skill levels, and industries. In the number one position, farmworkers and laborers had the largest number of vacancies (1,266) representing almost 12 percent of all job vacancies. Second position, held by packers and packagers, commanded close to 9 percent of all vacancies. For all other occupations, no single occupation represented as much as 4 percent of total vacancies, indicating the wide range of positions in the area going unfilled. About 15 percent of all job vacancies existed for 60 or more days. Many occupations that are health care related had high rates of long-term vacancy. Job by Industry Agriculture, forestry, and fishing industries had the most job vacancies, followed closely by accommodation and food services. Combined, these two industries represented

2 Oregon Job October 2008 Table 1 Top 25 Occupations in TOC/OWA With the Highest Number of Job, May 2008 Share of Total Vacant 60+ Days Occupation All Occupations 10, % 15% Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse 1, % 2% Packers and Packagers, Hand % 1% Registered Nurses % 15% Waiters and Waitresses % 16% Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners % 18% Combined Food Preparation and Serving Workers, Including Fast Food % 34% Cashiers % 22% Retail Salespersons % 29% Wholesale and Manufacturing Sales Reps, Non-technical and Scientific % 41% Fire Fighters % 1% Cooks, Restaurant % 7% Nursing Aides, Orderlies, and Attendants % 38% Truck Drivers, Heavy and Tractor-Trailer % 25% Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders % 0% Coaches and Scouts % 15% Food Preparation Workers % 11% Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers % 16% Personal and Home Care Aides % 39% Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education % 17% Customer Service Representatives % 2% Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Vocational Education % 15% Supervisors and Managers of Retail Sales Workers % 0% Postsecondary Teachers, Except Graduate Teaching Assistants % 15% Supervisors, Food Preparation and Food Serving Workers % 22% Construction Laborers % 6% Table 2 TOC/OWA Job by Industry, May 2008 Newly Education Created Beyond High School Industry All Industries 10,924 2% 20% 40% Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing 2,372 0% 0% 2% Accommodation and Food Services 2,011 1% 4% 62% Health Care and Social Assistance 1,587 2% 55% 66% Educational Services 1,098 1% 64% 81% Manufacturing 964 4% 10% 15% Retail Trade 895 1% 12% 16% Construction 550 3% 7% 48% Other Services 259 3% 25% 29% Finance and Insurance 256 3% 25% 38% Transportation and Warehousing 249 6% 5% 63% Administrative and Waste Services 125 8% 26% 35% Real Estate and Rental and Leasing 120 0% 2% 22% Professional and Technical % 52% 37% Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation 106 5% 13% 46% Wholesale Trade 74 9% 24% 34% Management of Companies 71 15% 21% 68% Information 69 13% 33% 26% more than 40 percent of all TOC/OWA region vacancies. Of all open jobs, 20 percent required education beyond high school or GED while 40 percent required a license or certificate. For educational service job vacancies, 81 percent required a license or certificate, the highest of any industry, suggesting that training is a significant part of the hiring challenge. Conversely, only 2 percent of openings in the agriculture, forestry, and fishing sector required education beyond a high school diploma. Newly created positions accounted for 2 percent of job vacancies, suggesting 2

3 Oregon Job October 2008 that the vast majority of job openings are created by turnover rather than by economic growth. Management of companies had the highest share of newly created positions, at 15 percent. Graph 1 35% Share of TOC/OWA Job Education Beyond High School by Size of Firms, May 2008 Job by Size of Business The largest companies (those with 250 or more employees) had 28 percent of vacancies. Smaller firms, those with fewer than 100 employees, represented the lion s share, at nearly 60 percent of vacancies. The overall job vacancy rate, the number of vacancies divided by the number of filled jobs, was 3.9 percent. The rate for firms with fewer than 20 employees was less than half of that, while firms with 250 or more employees had the highest vacancy rate at 5.1 percent. Table 3 Companies with 10 to 19 employees had a larger share of vacancies requiring higher education. Firms of 250 or more required education beyond high school for just 20 percent of their vacancies. Job vacancies at smaller companies were more likely to require an education beyond high school and previous experience. The smaller firms had a larger share of job vacancies due to newly created positions, which represented as much as 5 percent of their vacancies. Job by Education All but 6 percent of the reported vacancies included information on educational requirements. Of these, 20 percent required at least some college. 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% Newly Created Education Beyond Number of Employees Vacancy Rate* Full-Time Permanent Total 10, % 57% 58% 2% 20% 40% 49% < % 65% 78% 5% 24% 41% 60% , % 60% 80% 4% 30% 53% 58% , % 59% 81% 3% 20% 46% 48% , % 74% 48% 1% 11% 44% 57% , % 72% 72% 1% 27% 41% 55% 250 and up 3, % 35% 29% 0% 20% 27% 33% * divided by employment in first quarter 2008 TOC/OWA Job by Firm Size, May 2008 Graph 2 Job 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 <10 10 to to to to and up Employees TOC/OWA Job by Educational Requirement, May 2008 No Requirement Some College Assoc./Voc. Degree Bachelor's Degree Graduate Degree Other 3

4 Oregon Job October 2008 Job openings that require more education are more likely to be full time. Only 43 percent of vacancies with no educational requirement were full-time positions compared to 78 percent of jobs requiring a bachelor s degree. Table 4 TOC/OWA Job by Required Education Level, May 2008 Newly Created Required Education Level Full-time Permanent Total 10,924 57% 58% 2% 40% 49% No Requirement 5,748 43% 40% 1% 23% 27% 1,818 67% 77% 3% 37% 68% Some College % 77% 10% 32% 79% Assoc./Voc. Degree % 85% 3% 77% 83% Bachelor's Degree % 92% 2% 74% 87% Graduate Degree % 90% 2% 82% 83% Other % 51% 3% 78% 50% No Response % 65% 2% 62% 69% Of the roughly 5,748 vacancies that required no education, about 1,550 vacancies (27%) required previous work experience, while 73 percent or about 4,200 vacancies required no previous experience. ing $25 an hour or more required some education beyond high school, compared to only 2 percent of jobs paying less than $10 an hour. Graph 3 Job by Occupational Group Job openings exist in every occupational group. The group with the Job by Wage Of reported vacancies, 59 percent included information on wages offered. Within this group, job vacancies exist across all wage ranges. Almost twothirds of those job openings paid less than $10 an hour. Jobs paying $20 or more an hour represented slightly less than 10 percent of the vacancies with wage information. Job openings that pay higher wages were much more likely to require post-secondary education. Nearly 83 percent of all job openings pay- TOC/OWA Job by Hourly Wage, May 2008 $20.00 to $24.99 $15.00 to $19.99 $10.00 to $14.99 $25.00 to $29.99 $30 and up $7.95 to $9.99 Table 5 Wage (per hour) TOC/OWA Job by Hourly Wage Range, May 2008 Full-time Permanent Newly Created Education Beyond Total 10,924 57% 58% 2% 20% 40% 49% $ $9.99 4,123 39% 43% 1% 2% 31% 18% $10 - $ ,156 74% 72% 6% 20% 37% 59% $15 - $ % 86% 7% 60% 58% 82% $20 - $ % 97% 4% 76% 64% 86% $25 - $ % 95% 4% 81% 84% 79% $30 and up % 88% 2% 84% 75% 87% Unspecified 4,470 64% 60% 1% 24% 42% 65% 4

5 Oregon Job October 2008 most vacancies was transportation and material moving occupations; this includes packers and packagers, truck drivers, and fork lift operators. This is consistent with the relatively large number of vacancies in the agriculture, forestry, and fishing industry seen elsewhere in this report. The second largest group food preparation and serving is directly associated with accommodation and food services. Graph 4 100% 80% 60% Share of TOC/OWA Job Education Beyond by Hourly Wage Range, May 2008 A few occupational groups stand out as having unusually high shares of openings vacant for 60 days or longer, suggesting acute training challenges and/or high seasonal demand in those fields: architecture and engineering; construction; personal care and service; and installation, maintenance, and repair. Conclusion The May 2008 survey of businesses in the TOC/OWA region found an estimated 10,924 job vacancies, of which around 15 percent had been 40% 20% 0% $7.95 to $9.99 $10.00 to $14.99 $15.00 to $19.99 unfilled for two or more months. Long-term vacancies were especially common among food preparation and serving workers, and nursing and home health care aides. spanned a wide range of occupations, with farmworkers and $20.00 to $24.99 $25.00 to $29.99 $30 and up laborers topping the list. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing and accommodation and food services had the most job vacancies, with these two sectors representing over 40 percent of all vacancies. Full-time positions, those in large firms, and Table 6 TOC/OWA Job by Occupational Group, May 2008 Occupational Group Full-time Vacant 60+ Days Education Beyond All Occupational Groups 10,924 57% 15% 20% 40% 49% FoTransportation and Material Moving 1,521 26% 12% 0% 24% 23% O Food Preparation and Serving 1,495 49% 18% 1% 80% 33% SaFarming, Fishing, and Forestry 1,328 55% 4% 0% 0% 52% TrHealthcare Practitioners and Technical % 17% 84% 89% 81% MSales and Related % 23% 10% 14% 33% FaOffice and Administrative Support % 6% 11% 17% 66% P Production % 24% 3% 6% 22% EdEducation, Training, and Library % 12% 82% 84% 83% C Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance % 17% 2% 14% 31% H Personal Care and Service % 31% 12% 28% 40% PeHealthcare Support % 23% 38% 70% 61% B Management % 10% 63% 43% 87% InInstallation, Maintenance, and Repair % 29% 12% 35% 72% A Construction and Extraction % 32% 8% 21% 66% B Protective Service % 3% 0% 89% 13% C Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media % 19% 30% 68% 68% P Business and Financial Operations % 26% 55% 34% 83% A Community and Social Services % 11% 75% 74% 80% C Architecture and Engineering 79 97% 42% 68% 53% 85% Li Life, Physical, and Social Science 77 29% 12% 23% 53% 48% LeComputer and Mathematical % 15% 81% 32% 93% Legal 9 100% 22% 56% 33% 78% 5

6 those in the health care or educational services industries were more likely to require education beyond high school. The TOC/OWA region s vacancies spanned a wide range of hourly wages, although nearly twothirds pay less than $10 per hour and fewer than 10 percent pay $20 or more per hour. paying higher hourly wages were more likely to require education beyond high school. About TOC/OWA The Oregon Consortium / Oregon Workforce Alliance is a public/private partnership formed on behalf of 24 rural Oregon counties. Their mission is to Help Rural Oregon Work by providing vision and guidance to rural workforce development systems and partners. The partnership s Web site is Reports are available for the following regions: Central Oregon/Columbia Gorge (Crook, Deschutes, Gilliam, Hood River, Jefferson, Klamath, Lake, Sherman, Wasco, and Wheeler counties) Eastern Oregon (Baker, Grant, Harney, Malheur, Morrow, Umatilla, Union, and Wallowa counties) Oregon Coast (Clatsop, Coos, Curry, Lincoln, and Tillamook counties) Portland Metro Area (Clackamas, Columbia, Multnomah, Washington and Yamhill counties in Oregon, plus Clark County in Washington) Southern Oregon (Douglas, Jackson, and Josephine counties) Willamette Valley (Benton, Lane, Linn, Marion, and Polk counties) Oregon statewide To request copies, contact lmipubs.emp@state.or.us or (503) Toc/OWA Region List of Counties Baker Crook Gilliam Jefferson Morrow Union Clatsop Curry Grant Klamath Tillamook Wallowa Columbia Deschutes Harney Lake Sherman Wasco Coos Douglas Hood River Malheur Umatilla Wheeler Oregon Job Oregon Job is published by the Workforce & Economic Research Division of the Oregon Employment Department. Oregon Job can be found under Publications on OED s labor market information Web site, State of Oregon EMPLOYMENT DEPARTMENT 875 Union Street NE Salem, Oregon Laurie Warner, Director Graham Slater, Administrator for Workforce & Economic Research Production Team: Art Ayre Nick Beleiciks Jim Lee Paul Marche Mark Miller Jessica Nelson Kathi Riddell Graham Slater Address changes: Workforce & Economic Research 875 Union Street NE, Rm 207 Salem, OR or phone (503) , TDD , lmipubs.emp@state.or.us Material contained in this publication is in the public domain and may be reproduced without permission. Please credit Oregon Job, Oregon Employment Department. Any information on individual companies comes from nonconfidential published sources. WorkSource Oregon is an equal opportunity employer/program. WorkSource Oregon es un programa/empleador que respeta la igualdad de oportunidades. RSPUB (1008)