Unemployed-to-Job Vacancy Ratio in Oregon and the East Cascades

August 03, 2026

Every quarter, the Oregon Employment Department conducts a survey of private establishments with two or more employees and collects information about the number of job openings as well as the characteristics of these openings (e.g., permanent status, full- or part-time, wages offered, and experience and education requirements). In the spring quarter of 2026, there were 45,378 vacancies reported statewide and 5,457 vacancies reported in the East Cascades region.

Using the number of openings reported by Oregon businesses, it is possible to construct a ratio of the number of unemployed Oregonians to the number of job vacancies. This ratio provides an indication of how tight or loose the labor market is, i.e. whether employers or jobseekers have more leverage in the labor market. When this ratio is low, there are fewer available workers per job opening and employees have more power to negotiate wages and can potentially transfer to more favorable job opportunities. When the ratio is high, there are more available workers per job opening, and there is more competition between jobseekers.The ratio for the East Cascades region has been lower than the statewide ratio for 27 of the past 38 quarters. In the spring quarter of 2026, this ratio was 1.9 for the East Cascades meaning there were less than two available workers for each reported vacancy. The historic high occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic when the number of unemployed people spiked and fewer vacancies were reported. In the post-recession recovery period that followed, reported vacancies increased sharply while the number of unemployed decreased at a more gradual rate which resulted in low unemployed-to-vacancy ratios. Over the past five years, the number of unemployed people has steadily increased in both Oregon and in the East Cascades. Regionally, reported vacancies are seasonally cyclical with higher vacancies usually reported in the fall.