OLMIS

by David Cooke
Published Nov-19-2012

The average workweek of Oregon's manufacturing production workers shot up to 40.8 hours in September. That was the second highest reading over the past five years. Not since December 2011, when the figure was 41.0, was the workweek longer.

The growth in hours is a clear indication that manufacturing firms are working their existing employees longer hours, even though these key employers haven't increased headcounts much over the past year. Seasonally adjusted manufacturing employment is up 2,700 jobs, or 1.6 percent, in the 12 months ending in September.

Smoothing out the weekly hours figures shows that the manufacturing workweek continued to ramp upward over the past three years. By September, the 12-month average reached 40.2 for production workers and 39.6 for all employees within manufacturing. Both figures were at or near their post-recession highs. For production workers, the workweek is now back to the pre-recession metric, while for all manufacturing workers, average weekly hours are within a few tenths of an hour from those pre-recession levels.