Online Job Postings by Occupation Group in Oregon
October 07, 2025Between January and June 2025, Oregon employers posted about 224,000 new online job ads according to the Conference Board-Lightcast Help Wanted Online (HWOL) data series. The number of job postings over a given timeframe can be measured in two different ways. New job postings capture ads first posted within the selected timeframe and can be aggregated to show quarterly or annual totals. Active job postings include all ads that were live at any point during a given month, even if they were originally posted in earlier months but remained active. This measure reflects the total volume of job demand within the month. All job posting data in this analysis refer to new postings, which track emerging demand and fresh hiring activity.
Job Postings Vary Across Occupation Groups
Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations led job postings with 27,200 new postings, or 11.9% of all new online ads in Oregon during the first half of 2025. A significant portion of these – about one-third – were for registered nurses, with 9,400 postings. When combined with healthcare support occupations, healthcare related roles made up 17.3% of all new job postings statewide. Sales and related occupations had the second highest number of new postings (25,800). These new ads represented 11.3% of the statewide total, and much of the demand came from retail salespersons (7,400). Management occupations followed in third (23,000, 10.1%), led by strong demand for medical and health services managers (3,700).
Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations had the fewest new job ads (900, 0.4%) between January and June 2025. The limited number of postings aligns with the group’s relatively small presence in Oregon’s labor market. According to Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) data series, farming, fishing, and forestry accounted for 0.4% of total employment in 2024¬ – the smallest occupation group in the state.
In addition to the total number of job postings, it is also helpful to look at how concentrated certain occupations are in Oregon compared with the national average. This can be measured by a location quotient (LQ), which compares the share of job postings in a specific region to the share nationwide. An LQ greater than 1 means that Oregon has a higher concentration of demand for an occupation than the nation, while an LQ less than 1 indicates a lower concentration. For example, registered nurse postings made up 4.1% of all new job ads in Oregon, compared with 4.7% nationally during the first half of 2025. This resulted in an LQ of 0.87, meaning that demand for registered nurses was less concentrated in Oregon than in the U.S. overall.
Among the top 10 occupation groups by new job postings, healthcare support occupations had the highest LQ during the first two quarters of 2025. Their share of job postings in Oregon was about 25% higher than the national average. In contrast, computer and mathematical occupations had the lowest concentration, with an LQ of 0.79. They made up a smaller share of job postings in Oregon than they did nationally during the first half of 2025.
These patterns are not new. Over the past several years, computer and mathematical occupations have consistently had LQs below 1 in Oregon, reflecting a lower concentration of tech job demand compared with the national average. Meanwhile, healthcare support occupations have maintained LQs above 1, showing stronger local demand for those roles.
Occupation Group Job Posting Trends
While the first half of 2025 gives a snapshot, the indexed trends reveal how job postings in different occupations have shifted over time. Occupation groups differ greatly in posting volumes, making raw counts hard to compare. By indexing all series to January 2019 and setting each group and the statewide total equal to 100 at the starting point, it puts them on the same scale and allows for clear comparisons of growth or decline relative to the baseline. To reduce volatility in monthly new job postings, the data are presented as three-month moving averages. An index above 100 indicates an increase in job postings compared with January 2019, while an index below 100 signals a decline. Oregon’s overall job postings fell below the baseline in 2020, rebounded strongly in 2021, and remained elevated through late 2022. Postings then declined but stayed above pre-pandemic levels.
The statewide total index also serves as a benchmark. The gap between an occupation group’s index line and the total line shows how much faster or slower the group’s postings have changed relative to the overall job market since January 2019. By examining how each group moves compared with the statewide trend, we can see how its share of total job postings has shifted over time. When a group’s index line rises more quickly or declines more slowly than the total index, its share increases. When it grows more slowly or drops more sharply, its share declines.
Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations generally kept pace with the statewide trend until late 2022. During this period of close alignment, their share of job postings remained mostly steady, hovering around 9% from 2019 through most of 2022. Starting in late 2022, this group diverged upward from the total trend. As a result, their share increased, reaching a higher range between 11% and 13%. Seasonal slowdowns in job postings during winter months had less impact on healthcare practitioners and technical occupations than on the statewide total. Because total postings declined more sharply during those periods, the group’s relative share temporarily spiked.
Healthcare support occupations experienced more volatility than healthcare practitioners and technical occupations. Demand for healthcare support jobs surged in 2020 while overall job postings fell below their 2019 levels. This divergence pushed the group’s share higher during the pandemic. When a group’s index line moves right alongside the statewide total, its share is about the same as the baseline level. This was the case for healthcare support occupations from April to September 2022 when the group’s job postings closely tracked the statewide trend. During that time, their share of job postings returned to roughly the same level as in 2019. Starting in late 2022, healthcare support postings held relatively steady while overall postings declined, leading to an upward trend in the group’s share.
By comparison, computer and mathematical occupations followed a weaker trajectory than the overall job market. Their job postings dropped more sharply than the statewide total in 2020, which drove the group’s share down during the pandemic. While the broad job market rebounded strongly, computer and mathematical postings only recovered to about their 2019 level by 2021. This slower growth kept their share low. In 2022, the group experienced rapid growth, pushing postings above the January 2019 baseline and lifting its share. However, that momentum did not last. The group’s share of job postings fell below its pandemic low from July 2023 to July 2024. Although there was some recovery later in 2024, the group’s share rose briefly before declining again in early 2025.
Sales and related occupations did not keep pace with the overall market during the recovery, leading to a decline in their share. In 2024, however, their postings increased, bringing the group’s share back toward pre-pandemic levels. Office and administrative support occupations saw their share of postings trend downward from 2022 through mid-2025. This reduced demand for traditional clerical roles may be partly due to the greater use of automation. Transportation and material occupations surged and showed strong demand during the pandemic before stabilizing their share near their pre-pandemic levels in 2024. Food preparation and serving occupations rebounded more strongly than the overall market after the pandemic downturn and maintained a higher share of job postings than before the pandemic, though the group showed clear seasonal slowdowns during winter months.
Notes
This analysis uses new job postings to track changes in demand across occupation groups. New postings reflect shifts in employer demand more directly, though the series can be volatile from month to month. In contrast, active job postings, which represent all open positions at a given month, offer a broader view of the total demand and produce smoother trend lines. Total ads in the Help Wanted Online Index publication refer to active postings.
While share patterns based on active postings tell a broadly similar story, they differ in degree to those based on new postings. Active postings tend to show stronger upward trends for high demand occupations such as healthcare-related and food preparation and serving roles, and larger downward declines for others such as office and administrative support, and computer and mathematical occupations, where postings tend to remain open for shorter periods or be filled more quickly.
While the Help Wanted Online data series provides valuable insights into job posting trends, it has several limitations. Not all employers advertise jobs online, leading to underrepresentation in certain industries such as agriculture or construction. Online postings also tend to overrepresent higher-paying, professional, and urban-based occupations, such as those in IT and healthcare. Additionally, job postings reflect employer demand but do not indicate hiring counts or whether a position was filled. As a result, high posting volumes may not directly translate into employment growth.