MAY 2008: THE STATE WE'RE IN; OREGON EMPLOYMENT
Even slow-growing occupations will need workers
Slow job growth ahead. Watch for disappearing workers. These
might be the road signs for the recent 10-year occupational
employment projections from the Oregon Employment Department.
Despite only 14% job growth expected between 2006 and 2016, the
projections show more than 700,000 openings for workers who are
new to their occupations. Two-thirds of these openings will be
caused by the need to replace workers leaving occupations
— mostly through retirement or shifts to new occupations.
Slow-growth production jobs, for example, with aging
workforces, promise a wave of retirements and replacement
openings for managers to fill. Many other employers will be
competing for new workers to fill openings in more rapidly
growing occupations such as retail salesperson, registered
nurse, office clerk and waiter. Even the 40 occupations we
expect to decline in size by 2016 will — as a group
— need many new workers to replace the even larger number
who will leave these occupations.
Jessica Nelson
Worksource Oregon Employment economist
www.QualityInfo.org
