Oregon’s Job Growth Fastest in Private Education and Health Services
April 09, 2026Oregon lost 18,600 nonfarm payroll jobs, or -0.9%, from January 2025 to January 2026. Among all states and the District of Columbia, Oregon was near the bottom of the rankings, at 48th. Nevada was the fastest growing state, adding 1.9% over the year. Idaho and California were also among the faster-growing states, at 0.8% and 0.7% growth, respectively. Washington had slower growth at 0.3%, ranking 20th. The District of Columbia was the slowest growing over the year, at -5.9%.
Oregon Industry Rankings
Job growth rankings by industry sector show that only Oregon’s private education and health services industry added jobs fast enough to rank in the top 10 of all states. Oregon added 9,200 private education and health services jobs, or 2.7% from January 2025 to January 2026. California grew the fastest (5.7%) while the District of Columbia was the slowest (-1.1%). This growth was driven by health care and social assistance, which added 9,800 jobs (3.2%) over the year. Private educational services lost 600 jobs (-1.7%) over the same time.
Oregon lost jobs over the year in government (-1,600 jobs, -0.5%), and ranked 20th. South Carolina experienced the fastest growth, at 1.9%, while most states lost jobs, though the District of Columbia experienced the steepest decline (-11.3%). Job losses occurred in federal government (-2,200 jobs, -7.5%), while both state (300 jobs, 0.6%) and local (300 jobs, 0.1%) government added jobs.
In all other major industry sectors, Oregon lost jobs, and ranked near the bottom of all states and D.C. Construction declined by 3.4% and ranked 51st; professional and business services declined by 2.9% and ranked 48th; financial activities declined by 2.2% and ranked 47th; and manufacturing (-2.6%) and trade, transportation, and utilities (-1.6%) both ranked 46th.
Oregon’s Historical Job Growth Compared with the U.S.
Historically, Oregon has a track record of greater job growth than the United States. Oregon has tended to grow faster than the U.S. during good economic times, but lose more jobs, relatively, in the tough times. However, something different seems to be happening in Oregon in the recovery since the pandemic recession.
Oregon’s employment growth is diverging from the U.S. trend in recent years. Toward the end of 2023, Oregon began to grow slower and slightly decline at times. In 2024, Oregon added jobs at around the same rate as the U.S., though decidedly not faster. Since 2025, Oregon has been losing jobs while the U.S. continues to grow or remain steady. It will be interesting over the next few years to see if Oregon reverts to prior trends of growing faster than the U.S. or if that period of consistently stronger growth is behind us.
Where to Get Oregon’s Latest Job Growth Rates
The most recent job growth rates by industry for Oregon are available on QualityInfo.org using the Current Employment Estimates (CES) tool.