In Multnomah County, Online Job Ads Increase 8% in 2022
April 28, 2023The number of new online help wanted job ads increased 8% in Multnomah County between 2021 and 2022, according to The Conference Board-Burning Glass’s Help Wanted OnLine (HWOL) data series. In the same time period in Oregon, new ads increased by 16%.
An average of 15,496 new online job ads appeared per month in 2022 in Multnomah County (an annual total of 185,950), according to the Help Wanted OnLine (HWOL) data series. Labor demand remains elevated as Multnomah County nonfarm employment in 2022 is still down 18,300 jobs (-3.5%) from 2019 levels. Despite lagging employment, a 1 percentage point drop in the unemployment rate and a 4.2% increase employment from 2021 to 2022 indicate competitive hiring conditions and a tight labor market. Additionally, there are only an estimated 1.2 unemployed workers for each new online job ad posted in 2022 in Multnomah County, an incredibly low ratio compared with both recent history and Oregon at large.
New online help wanted ads in the HWOL data series, tracked by The Conference Board-Burning Glass, are an indicator of demand for workers. While these ads provide a proxy for labor market demand, they do not provide an exact measure of job openings for a few reasons: not all job openings are posted online, certain industries tend to post jobs online most often, and some jobs are posted online continuously as a means of collecting resumes without the intention of an immediate hire. Other factors, such as changes in the price for advertising jobs on job board sites, can also affect the number of help wanted ads.
Even though the HWOL data series does not perfectly measure all job openings, it still provides a way to measure trends in labor demand, employment, and occupational mix and growth.
Top 20 Most-Advertised Occupations
The job category with the most new online help wanted ads in 2022 was registered nurses with 6,889 total annual new ads. The increase of 1,349 new job ads from the previous year (a 24% increase) was the largest numerical increase among all tracked occupations. All other managers came in second with 5,885 new ads, an increase of 1,312 job ads (29%) from last year. Wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives came in third with 5,105 new ads, decreasing 128 (-2%) from the previous year, rounding out the top three.
Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers, which had the 14th-most new job ads in 2022 with 2,470, saw the largest numerical decrease in new ads. There were 1,067 fewer new ads in 2022 than 2021, a decline of 30%.
It is important to keep in mind that not all occupations are represented online equally. Some jobs, like computer occupations, tend to be posted more frequently on online job boards, while other jobs, like construction or agriculture, are less likely to be posted online.
