Lane County Job Vacancies in 2019

March 10, 2020

During 2019, private employers in Lane County were looking to fill roughly 5,400 job vacancies at any given time, up from 5,100 in 2018 according to new annual figures from the Oregon Employment Department’s Job Vacancy Survey. The Job Vacancy Survey provides a snapshot of the market job seekers face.
Statewide, the Portland Tri-County area (Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties) led the way with 27,013 or about 47 percent of openings. Lane County accounted for about nine percent of total vacancies.

The average starting wage offered by employers in Lane County was $17.31 compared with $18.81 statewide. Although the average wage was lower than the statewide average, Lane County had a slightly higher percentage of vacancies that required education beyond high school. Still, 63 percent of jobs required a high school diploma or less and a little less than half of those had no requirement at all.
Even though the majority of vacancies required no education beyond high school, the old adage that “education pays,” holds true in this data. The average starting wage for vacancies that require post-secondary education, such as an associate’s degree or some other certification was $23.22, and vacancies that required a bachelor’s degree or higher averaged $25.70. Comparatively, openings that require a high school diploma averaged $14.19 and starting wages averaged $13.43 for openings with no requirement.
The healthcare and social assistance industry accounted for 28 percent of vacancies in Lane County, more than any other industry. Some relatively low paying industries also had high shares of 2019 vacancies, with leisure and hospitality at 14 percent; management, administrative, and waste services (includes call centers and temporary firms) at 11 percent; and retail trade at 10 percent.

With the high demand for health care services, occupations related to the industry were prevalent. Personal care aides had the highest number of job vacancies at 256. Second was nursing assistants at 239, and registered nurses was third with 205 vacancies. Occupations in warehousing and transportation were next with heavy tractor-trailer truck drivers at 179; laborers and freight, stock, and material movers at 164 vacancies.
The Oregon Job Vacancy Survey has been conducted since 2008. The 2019 Lane County estimates are based on responses from 1,500 private employers with two or more employees.

For more details on statewide and regional vacancies, visit the “publications” tab on QualityInfo.org, click on “download publications” and scroll down to the section titled “Job Vacancy Survey.”