OLMIS

by Erik A Knoder
Published Feb-1-2010

Workforce Region 1 (Clatsop, Columbia, and Tillamook counties) is expected to have more than 13,500 occupational openings by 2018, mainly due to retirements and economic growth. Unfortunately for job seekers, the occupations with many openings also often pay low wages; waiters and waitresses, cashiers, retail salespersons and food preparation workers top the list of occupations that are more common in the area.

But there is some good news. Sifting through the roughly 580 occupations that the Oregon Employment Department studies in Region 1 shows some occupations that pay above-average wages and should have a decent number of openings over the next nine years. The top 12 are listed in Table 1.

Many of the openings are due to replacement needs, primarily from people retiring from the occupation. For this reason, occupations with little or no growth expected, such as paper goods machine operators, can still be a good career choice simply due to the large number of expected retirements.

One barrier to landing a job in one of these high-wage, high-demand occupations is that more education or training is usually required compared with low-wage occupations. The minimum education and training required is shown in the table but usually more is required to be a competitive candidate for a job.

Details about high-wage, high-demand occupations, including required skills and training providers, can be found in the Occupational Information Center at www.QualityInfo.org.