Regionality in Oregon’s Green Labor Market
May 15, 2025Oregon has been making a strong push to develop its green economy, contributing to demand for green jobs throughout the state. To explore demand for green jobs in Oregon, this article will use Lightcast and WorkingNation’s definition of core green jobs, or jobs directly tied to the green economy.
While core green jobs made up a small minority of online job postings statewide between 2019 and 2024, they made up a substantial portion of total ads in certain rural counties in Central and Eastern Oregon, highlighting the outsized role the green economy plays in smaller counties.
Most Online Ads for Core Green Jobs Found Near Large Population Centers
Counties with the highest number of total job vacancies also had the most postings for core green jobs in the five-year period between 2019 and 2024. Multnomah County had the largest number of core green online job ads with around 4,500, followed by Washington (2,200), Clackamas (1,000), Marion (960), and Lane (780) counties. This order also reflects the ranking for all job postings during this period, not just postings for core green jobs.
Core green jobs made up a relatively small proportion of total ads in these counties. Similar to Oregon as a whole, which had a concentration of 0.5% core green jobs as a percentage of total jobs, core green jobs made up between 0.4% and 0.6% of total online job ads in these counties. This was true for most counties in Oregon, 28 of Oregon’s 36 counties had between a 0% and 1% concentration of core green jobs. Wheeler County didn’t have any online job ads for core green jobs during this period.
Demand for Green Jobs Proportionally Highest East of Cascades, Along Columbia Gorge
For several counties, however, core green jobs did make up a substantial proportion of total job postings. These counties were rural and east of the Cascade Mountains. Lake, Harney, and Grant counties had 1.8%, 1.8%, and 1.9% volume of core green jobs, respectively, more than double the statewide rate. But by far the highest concentration of greens jobs came in three counties along the Columbia Gorge. Morrow (4.0%), Sherman (5.6%), and Gilliam (11.8%) counties had the highest concentration of core green job ad volume, far exceeding the rest of Oregon.
Occupational Make-Up Varies by County
There was a regional component to which core green occupation had the highest demand during this period. Zoologists and wildlife biologists had the highest number of job ads of any core green occupation in Lake, Harney, and Grant counties. This reflects the outsized role that federal and state agencies like the U.S. Forest Services played in those counties between 2019 and 2024. The Forest Service was the largest source of core green online jobs ads in these counties during this period. Zoologists and wildlife biologists were the most in demand core green jobs in several other eastern counties including Baker, Union, Wallowa counties, as well as Crook County in Central Oregon and Lincoln County along the coast.
By contrast, wind turbine technicians dominated core green job postings in Gilliam, Sherman, and Morrow counties. This reflects the unique geography of those counties, where the strong winds typical to the Columbia Gorge are especially conducive to wind power production. Wind turbine technicians were also the most common core green job in Coos County.
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers were another common core green occupation which was highest in demand in Benton, Clackamas, Lane, Marion, Polk, Tillamook, Umatilla, Washington counties. All other Oregon counties had a different core green job top job postings during this period.