Third Quarter 2026 Hiring Among Oregon’s Private Employers

October 22, 2026

Each quarter, the Oregon Employment Department surveys private employers from all industries and areas of the state to ask about the job vacancies they are actively trying to fill. Oregon businesses reported 53,900 vacancies in the third quarter of 2026. Vacancies remained flat from the previous year and increased 19% from the third quarter of 2025.

After reaching elevated levels of close to 100,000 job vacancies in the second quarter of 2021 through third quarter 2022 in the rapid hiring following pandemic re-openings, job vacancies across Oregon returned to pre-pandemic levels from 2023 to mid-2025. Third quarter 2026 levels were slightly lower than levels seen prior to the pandemic in the third quarters of 2018 and 2019.

In July 2026, there were 7.0 million private-sector job openings in the United States, as measured by the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, and 7.4 million people were unemployed, resulting in a U.S. ratio of about 1.1 unemployed people per job opening. Over the past year and a half, the U.S. unemployed to job vacancy ratio has been around 1.0 or slightly higher.

There were 117,500 unemployed Oregonians in July 2026 and 53,900 job vacancies, leaving about 2.2 unemployed persons for every job opening. As job vacancies in Oregon have fallen since the record high peaks and unemployment has been rising, Oregon’s unemployed-to-job vacancy ratio has been increasing.

Most Oregon openings in the third quarter of 2026 were for full-time, permanent positions. Education beyond high school was required for 38% of third quarter vacancies. Prior work experience was required for 68% of vacancies. Employers reported 54% of vacancies in the third quarter of 2026 as difficult to fill.

The average starting wage among this group of vacancies was $29.85 per hour, an inflation-adjusted increase of 8% from third quarter 2025, and 11% increase from the second quarter of 2026. The number of vacancies offering a starting wage below $20 per hour decreased 7% over the year. The number of vacancies offering between $20 and $30 per hour increased 9% over the year and vacancies paying above $30 per hour increased 29%.

Hiring demand was present throughout industries and occupations; however, over a quarter (26%) of all vacancies were in the health care and social assistance industry. Leisure and hospitality and professional, scientific, and technical services followed, with about 6,500 and 6,100 job vacancies, respectively.

Employers reported vacancies in almost 220 different occupations in the third quarter. The occupation groups with the most vacancies were sales and related (6,000), health care support (4,900), and transportation and material moving (4,500) occupations. Detailed occupations reported most frequently included personal care aides, fast food and counter workers, and retail salespersons.

Vacancies were distributed across the state. However, in third quarter 2026 job vacancies at private employers were highly concentrated in the Portland Tri-County area (Portland-Metro and Clackamas County, combined). This area represented almost half (46%) of all job vacancies across the state.

More details about Oregon Job Vacancies are available on QualityInfo.org, on the publications page under Job Vacancy Survey.