Spring Hiring Among Oregon's Private Employers Unchanged from Winter
July 23, 2026Each quarter, the Oregon Employment Department surveys private employers from all industries and areas of the state to ask about the job vacancies they are actively trying to fill. Oregon businesses reported 45,400 vacancies in spring 2026. Vacancies remained steady from the winter and decreased 11% from spring 2025. After reaching elevated levels of close to 100,000 job vacancies in spring 2021 through summer 2022 in the rapid hiring following pandemic re-openings, job vacancies across Oregon returned to pre-pandemic levels from 2023 to mid-2025. Spring 2026 levels were slightly lower than levels seen prior to the pandemic in spring 2018 and spring 2019.
In April 2026, there were 7.4 million private-sector job openings in the United States, as measured by the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, and 6.8 million people were unemployed, resulting in a U.S. ratio of about 0.9 unemployed persons per job opening. Over the past year and a half, the U.S. unemployed to job vacancy ratio has been consistently around 1.0.
There were 103,600 unemployed Oregonians in April 2026 and 45,400 job vacancies, resulting in about 2 unemployed persons for every job opening. As job vacancies in Oregon have fallen since the record high peaks and unemployment has been rising, Oregon’s unemployed-to-job vacancy ratio has been generally increasing, in contrast to the flat ratio experienced for the U.S. as a whole.
Most Oregon openings in spring 2026 were for full-time, permanent positions. Education beyond high school was required for 34% of spring vacancies. Prior work experience was required for nearly two-thirds (61%) of all vacancies. Employers reported 61% of vacancies in spring 2026 as difficult to fill. The average starting wage among this group of vacancies was $26.77 per hour, an inflation-adjusted decrease of 9% from spring 2025, and a 3% increase from winter 2026.
| Vacancy Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Total Vacancies | 45,378 |
| Average Hourly Wage | $26.77 |
| Full-time Positions | 75.9% |
| Permanent Positions | 89.1% |
| Requiring Education Beyond High School | 33.9% |
| Requiring Previous Experience | 60.7% |
| Difficult to Fill | 61.1% |
Hiring demand existed throughout different industries and occupations, though it remained highly concentrated in the private health care and social assistance industry (10,400 vacancies) which represented 23% of all job vacancies in the spring. The leisure and hospitality and construction industries followed, with 6,000 and 4,800 job vacancies, respectively.
| Industry | Vacancies |
|---|---|
| All Industries | 45,378 |
| Health care and social assistance | 10,355 |
| Leisure and hospitality | 5,957 |
| Construction | 4,774 |
| Retail trade | 4,108 |
| Professional, scientific, and technical services | 3,649 |
| Manufacturing | 3,541 |
| Other services | 3,079 |
| Financial activities | 2,768 |
| Management, administrative, and waste services | 2,610 |
| Wholesale trade | 1,863 |
| Private educational services | 1,402 |
| Transportation, warehousing, and utilities | 751 |
| Natural resources and mining | 338 |
| Information | 183 |
Employers reported vacancies in over 190 different occupations in the spring. The occupation groups with the most vacancies in spring 2026 were food preparation and serving related (5,000), installation, maintenance, and repair (4,800), and sales and related (3,600) occupations. Detailed occupations reported most frequently included personal care aides, general maintenance and repair workers, and preschool teachers.
Spring vacancies were distributed across the state, with the Portland Tri-County area (Portland-Metro and Clackamas County, combined) accounting for 36% of all vacancies. The Mid-Valley and East Cascades followed, with 5,700 and 5,500 job vacancies, respectively, in the spring.
More details about Oregon Job Vacancies are available on QualityInfo.org, on the publications page under Job Vacancy Survey.