More Oregonians stuck working part-time jobs

The number of Oregonians working part time because they can’t find a full-time job is up sharply over the past two years. It’s a sign that the state’s tight labor market is easing — and a signal that will be a painful transition for some workers.

Roughly 73,000 Oregonians are working part-time because their hours have been cut or because they want a full-time job but haven’t been able to find one, according to data from the Oregon Employment Department.

Fewer than 50,000 Oregon workers worked part time, but not by choice, at the end of 2022. That was the lowest number this century, coming amid an extraordinary period for Oregon’s economy when the state had more job openings than unemployed people.

That was a great time for workers because it was pretty easy to find a job and because many employers were raising wages to hire and retain everyone they could.

The tight labor market slowed economic productivity, though, because businesses couldn’t find the workers to meet the demand for their products and services. It was particularly tough on Oregon’s hospitality industry and other fields with a high number of entry-level workers.

Nationally, the tight labor market also contributed to inflation. That prompted the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates, making it more expensive to carry a credit card balance or to borrow money to buy a house or car.

Oregon’s labor market now seems to be relaxing.

The number of working Oregonians who can’t find full-time jobs has increased by more than 20,000 since 2022, over 50%.

It’s still not a high number by historical standards, roughly on par with the robust economy that predated the pandemic. And it’s down by about half from the worst months of the Great Recession. (The total briefly returned to peak levels in 2020, during the pandemic recession.)

The question now is whether Oregon’s labor market is settling out into “Goldilocks” territory — not too hot, not too cold — or whether the number of underemployed workers will continue to rise.

The share of Oregonians in the workforce is at its highest point in a dozen years. And there has never been a time when more Oregon workers had jobs in the prime of their careers, ages 25 to 54.

Yet hiring has slowed considerably over the past year and the unemployment rate has crept up from historic lows to 4.2%.

Recent layoffs in Oregon’s forest products industry, at Nike and at other large employers, along with a drop in semiconductor jobs, suggest some of the state’s economic pillars are at least a tad wobbly.

This is Oregon Insight, The Oregonian’s weekly look at the numbers behind the state’s economy. View past installments here.

— Mike Rogoway covers Oregon technology and the state economy. Reach him at mrogoway@oregonian.com.

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