OLMIS

by Nick Beleiciks
Published Sep-28-2009

The Quarterly Wage Tables are a complete account of Oregon workers and wages covered under unemployment insurance laws. Businesses report the number of hours worked and wages earned for each employee on a quarterly basis for unemployment insurance tax purposes. The Oregon Employment Department regularly creates tables from these reports to help summarize the current state of Oregon's workforce.

A portion of the statistics gleaned from the wage tables for the fourth quarter of 2008 are presented in the table. In October, November, and December of last year, there were almost 1,722,000 workers in Oregon covered by unemployment insurance. This was 2 percent fewer than in the fourth quarter of 2007. The number of people working just one job in the fourth quarter of 2008 fell 0.7 percent over the year-ago quarter to nearly 1,554,000. The total number of people working multiple jobs during the quarter decreased 12.9 percent.

Workers in Oregon earned an average of $10,000 during the fourth quarter of 2008. This was 0.8 percent more than the average wage in the fourth quarter of 2007. Workers with one job during the quarter earned an average of $10,200. Workers with two jobs earned much less - about $8,600 during the quarter - and workers with three jobs averaged around $7,200. It is difficult to draw firm conclusions about the earnings of multiple-job workers because the quarterly wage files do not differentiate between those working two jobs simultaneously and those who change employers at some point during the quarter.

We can, however, compare increases in average wages for the quarter with increases in the price of goods and services workers are buying with their wages. Between the second half of 2007 and the second half of 2008, the consumer price index (CPI-W) shows consumer prices for wage earners in the Portland-Salem area increased 2.8 percent. This is much higher than the 0.8 percent increase in the average wages of all workers, suggesting that many working Oregonians saw a real decrease in their earnings over the period. Wages for people working two jobs, however, increased 7.5 percent between the fourth quarter of 2007 and the fourth quarter of 2008, suggesting the real earnings grew for those who were able to find new jobs or took on second jobs at the beginning of the financial crisis.

More information about the quarterly earnings of workers in the state is available by visiting  www.QualityInfo.org and clicking on Wages & Income. Find and click on the Wage Tables link in the Oregonians@Work column and select the quarter you want to view.