OLMIS

by Brian Rooney
Published Feb-7-2012

The Oregon Employment Department has completed its most recent occupational employment projections. A detailed account of the 2010 through 2020 projections for the state and all of Oregon's 15 workforce regions can be found in the "Regional Information" section at www.QualityInfo.org. Select a region from the map. Then go to the publications tab and under "Reports" to access the link to the "Regional Employment Projections by Industry & Occupation 2010-2020."

Region 5 (Lane County) is expected to add 25,208 net new jobs for a growth rate of 17.9 percent (Table 1). This compares with a statewide growth rate of 18.1 percent. Although net growth is expected in all major occupational categories, 63 percent of net new jobs will be created in four of the 12 categories. Two of those four categories, professional and related, and services grow at a relatively moderate rate, but add large numbers of new jobs by virtue of being large categories to begin with. Office and administrative support, a relatively large category with an above average growth rate, adds the most new jobs. The fourth, health care, is expected to add new jobs due to rapid growth in the demand for health services caused by the aging of the population.

For this forecast, construction and extraction is expected to have the second highest growth rate as the region recovers from a severe recession.

Other "blue collar" occupations such as farming, fishing, and forestry; installation, maintenance, and repair; production; and transportation and material moving have lower than average growth rates, but add a significant number of jobs as the economy rebounds.

Even occupations that are not expected to grow rapidly can offer openings due to replacement needs. People leave occupations for a number of reasons but still need to be replaced. Reasons for leaving an occupation include promotion, career change, job loss, illness, and in the most extreme case, death. The aging of the "baby boomers" will increase the number of replacement openings as they retire. The most recent projections call for 36,570 replacement openings to be available in Region 5 during the 2010 through 2020 period.