Online Job Ads Decreased Towards Pre-Pandemic Levels in 2024

by Luke Coury

March 12, 2025

Oregon had an average of 92,000 job ads posted online every month in 2024, according to data from Lightcast-Conference Board’s Help Wanted OnLine program. This was the lowest level of ad volume since 2020. 
 
Online job ad volume increased sharply in the two years after the pandemic recession. In 2019, there was an average of 86,000 jobs posted online in Oregon every month. This declined in 2020 before rebounding in 2021 when average monthly online ads rose sharply to 120,000. In May 2022, online job postings reached a record high of 144,000. Monthly ads remained historically high throughout that year, averaging 134,000. In 2023, average monthly ads dropped to 102,000. The decline to 92,000 monthly ads in 2024 continued this return closer to pre-pandemic levels. 

Graph showing average online job postings continued to fall in 2024

Ad Volume Varied Across Oregon

The Portland-Metro region averaged 41,000 monthly ads in 2024, or a little less than half of Oregon’s average ad volume. Mid-Valley had the next largest average monthly ad volume at 14,000 ads, followed by Clackamas (10,000), Lane (7,600), East Cascades (5,400), Northwest Oregon (5,000) Rogue Valley (2,900), Eastern Oregon (2,000), and Southwestern Oregon (1,900).

Table showing average monthly ads by region in 2024

Only Clackamas experienced increased ad volume in 2024 compared to 2023, with a growth in average monthly ad volume of 2%. All other areas saw a decrease. Rogue Valley saw the largest percentage decrease at 18.6%, followed by Eastern Oregon (-17.4%), Southwestern Oregon (-15.8%), Lane (-14.7%), Mid-Valley (-13.7%), Portland Metro (-11.8%), and East Cascades (-1.7%) and Northwest Oregon (-0.7%). Statewide, average monthly job ads decreased by 10.3% 

Graph showing percent change in average monthly online ads by area

Registered Nurses Continue to Top Postings

Registered nurses continued to have the most online ads in 2024. Across all of Oregon, there were nearly 19,000 unique job ads for registered nurses. The next highest volume of ads were for retail salespersons (16,000), first-line supervisors of retail sales workers (9,100), customer service representatives, (7,800), and laborers and freight, stock, and material movers (6,300).

Graph showing registered nurses again top help-wanted ads

Two occupations had notably large percentage increases in year-over-year ad volume. Fast food and counter workers saw a 34.8% increase in ad volume over the year. Home health and personal care aides had a similarly large 32.7% increase. Other occupations with relatively high percentage increase in ad volume were retail salespersons (12.9%), first-line supervisors of food and preparation and serving workers (12.1%), and stockers and order fillers (11.8%). Despite continuing to be the most advertised job online, ad volume for registered nurses decreased by 7.7% between 2023 and 2024.

You can find more data and trends in the Help Wanted Online Index publication on QualityInfo.org.

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