Surprise, surprise, those in search of a job have the market on their side, for once. According to Willamette Week’s interview with Gail Krumenauer, an employment economist for the state of Oregon, it’s a job seeker’s market.
Krumenauer said that “For every seven unemployed people, there are 10 jobs available,” later saying, “In the summer, we hit 107,000 [jobs available] and that’s just the private sector.”
And it’s not just Oregon – this is a nationwide phenomenon. The nation’s unemployment rate remains at 3.9%, with Oregon’s only .3% higher at 4.2% unemployment. In Benton County, the unemployment rate is only 3.2%
For those who haven’t needed to seek a job throughout the pandemic, here are a few highlights of the first page of Corvallis’ Craigslist job section:
- Urgent hiring Area Relief! Sign-On Bonus $1500! Wages $25/hr!
- Hiring [an] STC Apprentice $3400/mo! Sign-On Bonus up to $1000!
And the Indeed job listing for the Corvallis area isn’t any different – constant boastings of signing bonuses, urgent hiring tags, and more. The pandemic has undoubtedly had a massive hand in this shift of labor, but there’s more to it.
For those who are curious about what exactly caused this, Suzette Smith and her colleagues at Willamette Weekly did a bang-up job of detailing everything from supply shortages and work from home, to why it’s all happening in the first place.
By Ethan Hauck
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