Top Occupations Oregon Employers Were Hiring in 2024 Job Vacancies
February 27, 2025Oregon private employers reported 57,800 job openings at any given time in 2024. This was a 21% decline from the 72,800 job openings seen in 2023. Oregon saw record high level of job vacancies in the recovery from the pandemic recession in 2021 and 2022, while 2023 vacancy levels were slightly declined but still elevated from the previous high seen in 2016 (60,700). Despite the overall decline, employers were hiring for a variety of jobs and reported vacancies across nearly 400 different occupations.
Throughout the year, the Oregon Employment Department surveys private employers with two or more employees from all industries and areas of the state to ask about job vacancies they are actively trying to fill. For each vacancy, the employer provides the job title, starting wage, and education and experience requirements for the job. Details about the decline in vacancies are available in Oregon Job Vacancies: 2024 Hiring Fell to Pre-Pandemic Levels.
Job Titles with the Most Hiring Activity
Occupations with the highest number of job vacancies in 2024 reflected need for many different occupations across Oregon but with many health care jobs. Occupations with the most openings in 2024 included personal care aides (2,400); fast food and counter workers (2,100); registered nurses (1,500); business operations specialists (1,200); heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (1,100); and retail salespersons (1,100).
While overall hiring demand declined in 2024, most job vacancies continued to be for full-time, permanent jobs. In most of the top occupations, at least seven out of 10 openings were full-time. Jobs more likely to be part-time included fast food and counter workers, maids and housekeeping cleaners, teaching assistants, and personal care aides.
Employers were looking to permanently fill jobs with remarkable consistency – overall, 94% of openings were permanent. Maids and housekeeping cleaners (69%) and laborers and freight, stock, and material movers (81%) had the lowest shares of permanent jobs among these top occupations.
A characteristic that varied greatly by occupations was the requirement for previous experience, with 55% of all vacancies in 2024 requiring at least some level experience. The top occupations least likely to require experience included personal care aides (17%), maids and housekeeping cleaners (15%), and fast food and counter workers (11%). But nearly all vacancies for other occupations required some level of experience- including heavy truck drivers (94%), automotive service technicians and mechanics (86%), and restaurant cooks (85%).
Employers reported about half of their vacancies as difficult to fill in 2024, at 55% compared with 61% in 2023. This is a similar level of difficulty filling vacancies that was seen prior to and during the pandemic recession. Of the occupations with more than 500 job vacancies in 2024, employers reported the most difficulty filling openings for automotive service technicians and mechanics (92%), heavy truck drivers (82%), and maids and housekeeping cleaners (77%). Less than one-third of openings were difficult to fill among receptionists and information clerks (30%), financial managers (30%), and customer service representatives (26%).
Hiring Activity by Broad Category
The detailed occupations in the first table, those with more than 500 vacancies in 2024, accounted for 41% of all vacancies reported. Vacancies were reported in almost 400 occupations over the course of the year. Summing these openings up by broad occupation group gives us a more thorough sense of the hiring happening in 2024.
Four occupation groups had more than 4,000 vacancies at any given time in 2024. Health care hiring was evident in strong hiring for health care support (6,400) and health care practitioner and technical occupations (5,700). Food preparation and serving (5,500) and transportation and material moving (4,800) rounded out the top occupation groups. At any given time in 2023, a total of ten occupation groups had more than 4,000 vacancies apiece.
Most occupation groups, 19 out of 22, had fewer job vacancies in 2024 than in 2023. In total, the number of job vacancies in 2024 was 21% below the level in 2023. Construction and extraction, protective service, architecture and engineering, legal, and farming, fishing, and forestry job openings declined by more than 50%. Only four occupation groups increased their level of vacancies from 2023 to 2024 - life, physical, and social services (144%); personal care and service (27%); education, training, and library (8%); and transportation and material moving (6%).
Among the smaller group of 2024 vacancies, a similar share required education beyond high school, at 39%, and previous experience, at 55%. In 2023, 39% of vacancies required education beyond high school and 58% required previous experience. The share requiring education beyond high school ranges from more than 93% of health care practitioner, architecture and engineering, and legal occupation vacancies, to less than 10% of food preparation and serving; building and grounds cleaning and maintenance; farming, fishing, and forestry; office and administrative support; and production jobs. Occupation groups with higher shares requiring education and experience also tended to pay higher starting wages.