Oregon Labor Market After the Jolt: JOLTS in Oregon

December 26, 2025

Labor demand in Oregon continued to cool in 2024, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Opening and Labor Turnover (JOLTS) program.

JOLTS is a monthly survey that is used to measure labor availability and demand through job openings, hires, and separations. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) calculates estimates using national surveys of about 21,000 establishments. State-level JOLTS data, however, is largely estimated using national data input models, with limited information gathered specifically from Oregon businesses. More details on the BLS’s methods are available on their website.

New trends emerged in 2024, after the phenomenon of the “Great Resignation” of 2021 and 2022 when Oregon witnessed unprecedented annual hires and job openings. This spike in demand led to a historic rise in resignations as workers sought improved employment opportunities, consequently creating a cycle of increased job openings and hires statewide. The tight labor market conditions and recruitment challenges during this time prompted companies to decrease layoffs and discharges to their lowest recorded levels.

Labor Demand Cools in 2024

In 2024 annual total hires, defined as all additions to payroll, hit 869,000. This was a nearly 18% drop from two years prior when it reached a record of 1,056,000 in 2022. 

The hiring rate, or hires as a percentage of employment, also waned sharply down to 3.6% in 2024 compared with the rate of 4.5% in 2022. The hiring rate in 2022 was less than half a percentage point lower than the highest recorded hiring rate in Oregon of 4.9% in 2005. The lowest recorded hiring rate of 3.4% occurred back-to-back in 2009 and 2010, and again in 2012.

In Oregon in 2024, the BLS estimated a monthly average of 103,000 job openings – defined as a firm actively recruiting for a position that starts within 30 days. Comparatively, there were 145,000 in 2022, the highest annual average job openings level in Oregon since the BLS started tracking job openings in 2001. In 2023, the year started with an estimated 184,000 job openings in January and ended at 90,000, with an annual monthly average of 118,000 job openings. In 2024, openings continued to trend downward but in a tighter range, resulting in a 30% drop in annual average job openings from the 2022 numbers. 
The job openings rate, the percentage of the job openings divided by the sum of employment and job openings, experienced an annual average of 4.9% in 2024. This was a drop of 2 percentage points from the peak annual average of 6.9% in 2022, its highest rate in the JOLTS series. The lowest yearly rate of the series came in 2009 at 2.2%.

Separations Level Off

The sky-high demand for labor had two distinct effects on separations in the labor market during the “Great Resignation”. First, total annual quits were at the highest level ever recorded in Oregon as employees had unprecedented ability to seek other opportunities. Second, total layoffs and discharges were at the lowest levels and rate ever as employers tried to retain labor in a difficult hiring environment. 

Separation data showed additional signs of a cooling labor market. Total annual layoffs and discharges increased to 250,000 in both 2023 and 2024 from a record low 223,000 in 2022. Total annual quits displayed similar trends, decreasing to 521,000 in 2024 from their highest level of 675,000 in 2022.The quits rate, defined as quits as a percentage of employment, also trended lower, down to 2.2% in 2024. The 2022 annual quits rate was the second highest ever at 2.9%, only behind 2021’s rate of 3%.

Total annual layoffs and discharges held firm at 250,000 in 2024. The lowest figure for this in JOLTS history for Oregon was from 2022 with only 223,000. The seasonally adjusted monthly layoffs and discharges averaged 18,600 a month in 2022. This jumped to an average of 20,800 a month in 2023 and 2024. The annual layoff and discharge rate, layoffs and discharges as a percentage of employment, in Oregon held at 1.1% for both 2023 and 2024. This rate showed an increase from the lowest ever rate of 1.0% set in both 2021 and 2022.

Oregon faced an unparalleled labor market in 2022. However, data from 2024 indicates firms were increasingly more comfortable discharging employees with the easing of hiring and retention challenges post "Great Resignation”.