Public and Private Employment in Oregon
February 26, 2025Data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) can be utilized to compare historic public and private employment in Oregon. QCEW is based on unemployment insurance tax reports submitted quarterly by employers subject to Employment Department law. QCEW employment is often referred to as “covered employment”, meaning covered by unemployment insurance. Learn more about QCEW data here.
On average in 2023, Oregon employment totaled 1,988,670. About 86% of this employment was in the private sector (1,702,772 jobs), while 14% was in combined federal, state, and local government employment (285,898 jobs). Total employment in Oregon has grown 25% since 2001, but that growth has not been distributed equally across ownership. The private sector and local government in Oregon have both grown from 2001 to 2023, with the private sector growing by 27%, and local government employment growing 22%. Both federal government (-5%) and state government (-8%) have declined over the same time period.
Over time, the share of public to private workers in Oregon has remained relatively stable. In 2001, private employment represented 84% of total employment, while government represented 16%. From 2001 to 2023, the private sector’s share of Oregon employment ranged from a low of 82% in 2009 (during the Great Recession) to a high of 86% between 2018 and 2023. Conversely, the public sector’s share of employment ranged from a high of 18% in 2010 and a low of 14% from 2018 to 2023.
Oregon’s private-to-public employment makeup looks very similar to the U.S. as a whole. In 2023, private employment made up 86% of all covered employment across the U.S., while 14% was found in government. The major difference between the U.S. and Oregon came in the distribution between federal, state, and local government. In Oregon in 2023, 1.4% of total covered employment was in federal government, while 2.3% was in state government, and 10.6% was in local government. In the U.S that same year, 1.9% was federal government employment, 3.0% of jobs were in state government, and 9.3% were in local government.
Details of Public Employment
The majority of public employment in Oregon is concentrated in local government, totaling 211,600 jobs in 2023. Local government jobs are largely concentrated in two industries- educational services and public administration. The public administration is where a lot of city and county government jobs are found, with Multnomah County and the City of Portland being some of the largest employers. Local government educational services include all public K-12 school districts and public universities and colleges across the state, including Oregon Health and Science University. Prior to 2016, public universities and colleges were counted in state government, and were moved local government in subsequent years.
State government employment in Oregon was about 2% of total employment in 2023, or 45,800 jobs. Much of state employment is concentrated in the public administration and health care and social assistance sectors. The largest state government employers include the Department of Human Services, the Oregon Health Authority, and Oregon Department of Corrections.
Over the years, there have been several changes to what counts in state government employment. In 2005, home care workers first became covered by unemployment insurance and in 2018 those covered jobs were moved from state government to private employment. As mentioned above, public colleges and universities in Oregon moved from state government to local government in 2016. So while state government employment declined between 2001 and 2023, large noneconomic movements have happened that disrupted the trend. From 2020 to 2023, state employment grew by 11%, from 41,300 jobs to 45,800.
In 2023 there were 28,500 federal government workers in Oregon, representing a little over 1% of total jobs. Average annual employment in Oregon has remained fairly steady over the past two decades. With the exceptions of Decennial Census workers increasing employment in 2010 and 2020, the federal workforce has declined 5% in Oregon from 2001 to 2023. The top federal employers in Oregon included the U.S. Postal Service, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Agriculture. More information on federal government employment can be found here: Federal Government Jobs in Oregon.