Douglas County Economic Indicators - March 2023
The March edition of the Douglas County Economic Indicators is attached and available on Quality Info.
Douglas County job growth was essentially flat year-to-year in February 2023. Gains in industries such as health care and other services were balanced by losses in leisure and hospitality and professional and business services. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 5.9%, which is up about 1 percentage point over the year.
The special graph this month focuses in on difficult-to-fill jobs in Southwestern Oregon (Coos, Curry and Douglas county). 76% of job vacancies were considered difficult to fill by employers in 2022, a bit higher than the state’s rate of 72% and a record annual level since we began the survey in 2013.
However, certain jobs were even more difficult for employers to fill than that. Several occupations had more than 90% of vacancies considered difficult to fill in Southwestern Oregon.
These jobs covered a wide range of pay, industries, skills and training. Certain jobs such as landscaping workers and counter clerks do not require a high level of formal training, whereas electricians and family therapists require years of specialized education and training. In very broad terms, they tend to be either occupations that are lower pay and higher turnover or ones that require a specific training program (which tend to have been difficult to fill roles for many years).
This month’s articles included:
Southwestern Oregon Jobs Projected to Increase 9% by 2031 on Quality Info
Oregon Hourly Earnings Zoom Higher on Quality Info
Oregon’s Regional Income Distributions on Oregon Office of Economic Analysis blog
As always, the Indicators contain all the latest economic data on our area. If you have a data question or want to learn more about any of these topics, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Henry L. Fields
Workforce Analyst/Economist
Serving Lane and Douglas counties
Oregon Employment Department
(541) 359-9178
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