www.QualityInfo.org
Two-Fifths of Oregon’s Job
Vacancies Are Difficult to Fill
July 2013
Jessica Nelson, Employment Economist,
[email protected], (503) 947-1276
Major Findings
➣ More than two-fifths (44%) of Oregon’s job vacancies in fall 2012 were
reported as “difficult to fill.”
➣ The most common reasons employers cited for difficulty filling positions
were:
• Unfavorable working conditions (18%)
• Lack of qualified candidates (18%)
• Lack of applicants (14%)
• Lack of work experience (13%)
➣ Difficult-to-fill vacancies are more likely to require education beyond high
school and much more likely to require previous work experience.
➣ Difficult-to-fill vacancies offer higher wages on average than vacancies that
weren’t reported as difficult to fill.
➣ Employers are looking for the “right” combination of education and
experience for unique roles within their companies. This may provide a
more difficult training challenge than if companies were looking for a large
number of employees with essentially identical skills.
➣ The education levels for which employers had the most difficulty were
positions requiring associate degrees and positions requiring graduate
degrees.
➣ Health care had by far the most vacancies reported as difficult to fill.
Manufacturing and trade, transportation, and utilities had more than their
share of difficult-to-fill vacancies.
A Survey of Oregon Employers
Each year from 2008 to 2012, the Employment Department has conducted a job
vacancy survey. Oregon employers identify the number and types of jobs they’re
looking to fill, and tell us about the characteristics of those positions. In 2012, a
new question was added to the survey to capture information on difficult-to-fill
vacancies, with surprising results.
On the 2012 Oregon Job Vacancy
Survey, we asked
employers to let
us know if each
vacancy was
difficult to fill. We
also asked them
to provide, briefly,
the most important
reason why they
had trouble filling
a vacancy. Since
D
ifficult-to-fill vacancies
are more likely to require
education beyond high
school and much more
likely to require previous
experience.
it was the first time we’ve asked the
question, we weren’t sure what to
expect, but we did not anticipate hearing that 44 percent of the vacancies
reported on the survey were difficult
to fill. That’s 13,808 vacancies that
employers were having difficulty filling
in the fall of 2012.
How are Difficult-to-Fill
Vacancies Different?
What sets difficult-to-fill vacancies
apart from other vacancies? Difficultto-fill vacancies are more likely to
require education beyond high school
and much more likely to require previous experience (Table 1). They are
more likely to be permanent positions – 87 percent of difficult-to-fill
vacancies were for permanent positions. And difficult-to-fill vacancies are
generally for higher-wage jobs than
vacancies that weren’t marked difficult
to fill; $20.91 per hour compared
with $15.50.
Table 1
Oregon Job Vacancies by Difficult to Fill Status, Fall 2012
All Vacancies
Difficult to Fill
Not Difficult to Fill
Vacancies
31,230
13,808
17,422
Requiring
Education
Requiring
Average
Beyond
Previous
Hourly Full-time Permanent
Wage Positions
Positions High School Experience
$17.92
74%
82%
28%
68%
$20.91
75%
87%
33%
79%
$15.50
73%
77%
25%
59%
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Two-Fifths of Oregon’s Job Vacancies Are Difficult to Fill
Graph 1
Oregon Job Vacancies by Years of Required Experience,
Fall 2012
50%
Difficult to Fill
45%
July 2013
vacancies, at 39 percent, while
employers in Eastern Oregon had
the most difficulty, with difficultto-fill positions accounting for 57
percent of all vacancies reported.
An employer’s size didn’t seem
to be much of a factor in difficultto-fill issues. Mid-size employers
– those with 20 to 99 employees
– had the most difficulty filling
positions, reporting 55 percent of
their vacancies as difficult to fill.
The largest employers (employing 100 or more workers) had the
least difficulty, with just 35 percent
difficult to fill.
Not Difficult to Fill
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
A List of Difficult-to-Fill
Occupations
10%
5%
0%
No Requirement
Not only do difficult-tofill vacancies require
previous experience more
often, the prior experience requirement is likely
to be longer for a difficultto-fill position. Vacancies
that were not difficult
to fill were twice as
likely as their difficult-to-fill
counterparts to require
no previous experience
at all. In contrast, almost
half of the difficult-to-fill
openings required one to
five years of experience,
compared with just onethird for vacancies that
weren’t difficult to fill. The
share requiring the most
experience, five or more
years, accounted for 17
percent of the difficultto-fill positions and just
7 percent of those that
weren’t difficult to fill.
No one region of the
state stood out in terms of
employer difficulty filling
positions. Employers in
Southwest Oregon reported the least difficulty filling
2
<1 Year
1-5 Years
Required Experience
5+ Years
The 25 occupations with the
largest number of difficult-to-fill
vacancies are listed in Table 2.
These 25 occupations accounted for almost half (46%) of the
total difficult-to-fill vacancies.
Table 2
Top 25 Occupations in Oregon
With the Highest Number of Vacancies Reported as Difficult to Fill, Fall 2012
Occupation
All Occupations
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers
Retail Salespersons
Nursing Assistants
Automotive Service Technicians and Mechanics
Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists
Bus Drivers, School or Special Client
Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education
Physical Therapists
Construction Laborers
Registered Nurses
Teacher Assistants
Personal Care Aides
Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers
Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except
Technical and Scientific Products
Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists
Production Workers, All Other
Computer-Controlled Machine Tool Operators, Metal and Plastic
Graders and Sorters, Agricultural Products
Light Truck or Delivery Services Drivers
Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders
Customer Service Representatives
Software Developers, Applications
Massage Therapists
Fence Erectors
Insurance Sales Agents
Vacancies
31,230
1,461
1,058
640
762
380
380
462
325
717
651
264
1,210
241
402
182
247
193
164
199
169
1,095
186
159
114
126
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Difficult to Share of
Fill
Total
13,808
44%
649
44%
417
39%
416
65%
391
51%
345
91%
337
89%
330
72%
316
97%
309
43%
301
46%
247
94%
238
20%
209
87%
207
175
172
165
164
156
145
137
131
122
114
113
52%
96%
70%
86%
100%
78%
86%
13%
70%
77%
100%
90%
Two-Fifths of Oregon’s Job Vacancies Are Difficult to Fill
Many of the occupations that
top the difficult-to-fill list will
come as no surprise to those
concerned with workforce training. Health care, manufacturing, and transportation-related
occupations – like physical
therapists, nurses, welders,
computer-controlled machine
tool operators, truck drivers, and
mechanics – make up much of
this top 25 list. These are fields
we already knew struggle to find
a qualified workforce.
Retail salespersons ranked
second in difficult-to-fill vacancies. Part of the reason
was likely the survey period;
the 2012 vacancy data was
collected in the fall, as retail
trade geared up for the holiday
gift-buying season. School bus
drivers and teacher assistants
may have landed on the list for
the same reason, as school
districts finished
their hiring for the
school year.
Graph 2
Reasons Provided for Difficult-to-Fill Vacancies
Lack of training
3%
High education
requirements
2%
Lack of certification
5%
Unfavorable working
conditions
18%
Lack of soft skills
5%
Lack of technical
skills
6%
Lack of applicants
15%
Lack of work
experience
13%
Other
7%
Lack of qualified
candidates
18%
Five percent of difficultto-fill responses cited a
soft-skill issue. Half of
he reasons for
the responses categodifficulty didn’t change rized as a lack of softReasons for
Hiring Difficulty
skills included mention
much by region.
Why are so many
of drug testing, often
vacancies difficult
in combination with a
to fill? Employers
clean driving record or
provided reasons for the difficulty fillother considerations around criminal
ing vacancies in 90 percent of cases.
background checks and driver’s license
We grouped those responses into
endorsements.
12 categories (Graph 2). The most
common reasons are: unfavorable
The reasons for difficulty didn’t change
working conditions (18%); lack of
much by region. Location popped
qualified candidates (18%); lack of
out as more of an issue for Central
applicants (14%); and lack of work
Oregon (20%) and Eastern Oregon
experience (13%). Most other rea(15%) employers, whereas it only
sons are clustered in the 4 percent
made up 4 percent of the reasons
to 6 percent range, including lack of
provided across the state. Eastern
technical skills, lack of soft skills, lack
Oregon employers also struggled
of certification, employer location, and with a lack of soft skills (20%) and low
low wages. Lack of training and high
wages (14%) for a much higher share
education requirements were also
of their vacancies than the 5 percent
mentioned, but less frequently.
and 4 percent averages, respectively,
for each reason.
Unfavorable working conditions – the
most common reason for difficulty
The Right Education and
filling positions – includes things like
Experience
irregular schedules; few hours or too
many hours; and stressful, difficult, or
It’s interesting to think through the
physically demanding work.
interplay in education and work experience requirements for a vacancy, as
T
July 2013
Location
4%
Low wages
4%
employers must attempt to juggle the
two. Many jobs require both the appropriate education level and a certain
amount of experience relevant to the
position. But what if the education
the employer is seeking is scarce?
Do they turn away applicants with the
right degree because they haven’t
worked long enough? Or what if the
business absolutely can’t sacrifice the
experience, but they’re willing to cave
on the education requirement for the
right candidate?
Employers can tell us what they’re
seeking at the moment they’re filling
out our survey form, but it’s hard to tell
how cut and dry these requirements
are. They probably indicate absolute
necessities for some positions, and
employer preferences for others.
When we combine what we see in the
difficult-to-fill reasons by required work
experience and by required education,
the combination points to the tradeoffs employers need to make every
day in action.
When we look at the difficult-to-fill
vacancies reported to the 2012 Job
Vacancy Survey, analyzing them by
both the education level required and
the work experience required, some
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3
Two-Fifths of Oregon’s Job Vacancies Are Difficult to Fill
Graph 3
experience employers would like
to see on resumes, the field of
possible candidates shrinks. In
general, many vacancies require
experience. Employers who
didn’t mark their vacancy difficult
to fill are competing for that
same subset of workers with the
“right” experience.
The Interplay of Education and Experience in Oregon's
Difficult-to-Fill Vacancies
Other
Graduate Degree
Bachelor Degree
Vacancies requiring at least one
year of work experience were
more likely to cite issues with a
lack of qualified candidates, lack
of work experience, or a lack of
training. Vacancies requiring the
most experience (5+ years) cited a lack of technical skills more
frequently, 16 percent compared
with 6 percent overall.
Associate Degree
Postsecondary Training
High School Diploma
No Requirement
Grand Total
0%
20%
40%
No Requirement
striking trends pop out. Difficult-to-fill
vacancies with no education requirement are more likely to also have
no experience requirement. Work
experience in the one to five year
range is more of a barrier to hiring for
jobs requiring high school diplomas,
postsecondary training, and associate degrees. With the bachelor
degree education level comes
a surge of jobs requiring five or
more years of experience. At the
graduate degree level, work experience seems to take a back
seat, with two-fifths of difficult-tofill vacancies requiring no work
experience – the largest share
among education levels.
Experience Matters
60%
<1 Year
1-5 Years
80%
100%
5+ Years
perience showing up for a job. They’re
often talking about experience specific
to an occupation or industry, experience successfully utilizing a specific
skill set, or experience specific to a key
role. With each narrowing of the experience required and lengthening of prior
Employers reporting vacancies
without an experience requirement were more likely to say
employer location, low wages,
and unfavorable working conditions made hiring difficult.
Education Matters a Lot
Vacancies requiring postsecondary
training, graduate degrees and “other”
education requirements are the most
Graph 4
Comparing Shares of Vacancies by Education Level
Other
Graduate Degree
Bachelor Degree
While the overall rate of difficultto-fill vacancies was 44 percent,
vacancies requiring work experience had more difficulty than
those that didn’t require experience. More than half of vacancies requiring one to five years
of experience were difficult to fill.
Two-thirds of vacancies requiring five or more years of experience were reported as difficult
to fill. Keep in mind, employers
aren’t talking about general ex-
4
July 2013
All Vacancies
Difficult-to-Fill Vacancies
Associate Degree
Postsecondary Training
High School Diploma
No Requirement
0%
10%
20%
30%
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40%
50%
Two-Fifths of Oregon’s Job Vacancies Are Difficult to Fill
difficult to fill. Jobs requiring only
a high school diploma gave employers the least difficulty. The
trouble at the postsecondary
level is interesting: one would
assume that as the education
level increases and the population with the appropriate level of
education shrinks, the difficulty
would increase. However, employer responses do not show
a clear relationship between increasing education and increasing difficulty filling positions.
Graph 5 shows the reasons for
difficulty by education level. The
top four reasons (unfavorable
working conditions, lack of qualified candidates, lack of applicants, and lack of work experience) are broken out – the rest
of the categories are grouped
together in the “other” series in
this graph.
Vacancies that require postsecondary education are difficult
to fill for a variety of reasons.
Among reasons that fell into the
“other” category for this education level, lack of technical skills
were cited in 11 percent of cases,
lack of certification in 10 percent,
and low wages and location each
accounted for 9 percent.
Reasons for difficulty hiring at
the bachelor degree level include the usual suspects of lack
of qualified candidates and lack
of work experience. However, a
lack of technical skills was cited
in 20 percent of cases. In fact,
bachelor degree vacancies represented two-fifths of the vacancies citing lack of technical skills
as the reason for difficulty.
Vacancies requiring graduate
degrees had the second highest
share reported as difficult to fill,
at 72 percent. Far and away
the reason given was a lack of
applicants – that reason had a staggering 47 percent share of responses.
Coming in second and third: high
education requirements (18%) and
a lack of qualified candidates (15%).
There’s a small labor pool with this
July 2013
Graph 5
Reasons for Difficult-to-Fill Vacancies Vary by
Required Education Level
Other
Graduate Degree
Bachelor Degree
Associate Degree
Postsecondary Training
High School Diploma
No Requirement
Grand Total
0%
20%
40%
60%
Unfavorable working conditions
Lack of qualified candidates
Lack of work experience
Other
80%
100%
Lack of applicants
Graph 6
Reasons for Difficult-to-Fill Vacancies at the Graduate
Degree Level
Location
4%
Lack of work
experience
3%
Low wages
3%
Other
7%
Unfavorable working
conditions
0%
High education
requirements
18%
Lack of training
1%
Lack of technical
skills
2%
Lack of qualified
candidates
15%
Lack of certification
0%
level of education, and workers with
graduate degrees have a lower unemployment rate than workers with less
education. Employers seeking workers
to fill graduate-degree trained roles
may be facing a different, and much
tighter, hiring landscape than most.
Lack of applicants
47%
Digging into the details of what’s making
up the difficult-to-fill vacancies requiring
graduate degrees: two-thirds of these
vacancies are in healthcare practitioner
and technical occupations. The remainder is scattered, often in management,
engineering and the sciences.
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5
Two-Fifths of Oregon’s Job Vacancies Are Difficult to Fill
Among vacancies employers reported as “other” in terms of education requirements, two-fifths of responses to the difficult-to-fill question cited a lack of qualified
workers. Lack of certification was also a major reason for the difficulty filling jobs,
accounting for 24 percent of responses. This is an area that bears more research,
as employers reported more difficulty filling jobs with “other” education requirements than any other education requirement. Certifications and other qualifications
appear to be a part of the difficulty, but the specifics remain a mystery.
Most employers reporting “other” education requirements didn’t cite the specific
qualification they were looking for. Among those who did provide specifics, comments included requirements for:
➣ Class A commercial driver’s licenses
➣ Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT) licenses
➣ Certifications through the Oregon State Board of Nursing for nursing
assistants
➣ Journey-level electricians and Limited Maintenance Electricians (LME)
licenses
➣ Oregon Liquor Control Commission cards and Oregon Health Department
food server education
➣ Automotive Service Excellence certification or specific auto-maker
certification for auto mechanics
Industries Face Different Challenges
Manufacturing and transportation, warehousing, and utilities employers reported
a high share of difficult-to-fill vacancies. Health care reported more than double
the total number of vacancies reported by any other industry, so the volume of
difficult-to-fill vacancies in that industry is quite large. We’ll drill down into the
details of these industries having particular difficulty in a moment.
For many industries, the top four reasons (unfavorable working conditions, lack of
qualified candidates, lack of applicants, and lack of work experience) describe much
of what’s going on. In a few cases, the smaller categories grouped in the “other”
series here become important.
In four industries, unfavorable
working conditions accounted for
more than 20 percent of difficultto-fill responses: health care and
social assistance; transportation, warehousing, and utilities;
construction; and leisure and
hospitality.
High education requirements
weren’t a commonly reported
reason for difficulty filling vacancies, cited in just 2 percent
of cases. However, it’s worth
noting the industries reporting
high education requirements
as a barrier: health care and
social assistance reported 87
percent of the vacancies that
were difficult to fill due to high
education requirements; and
professional, scientific, and
technical services reported
another 12 percent. All of the
health care vacancies citing
6
July 2013
high education requirements came
from large firms (those with 100 or
more employees).
Industries Experiencing the
Most Difficulty
Health care reported more than twice
as many vacancies as any other
industry, so while the difficult-to-fill
ratio was average, it still meant lots
of difficult-to-fill vacancies – 2,940 in
total. Unfavorable working conditions
and a lack of applicants were the primary reasons for the difficulty.
High education requirements add a
layer of complication in health care,
accounting for 7 percent of the reasons provided, compared with just 2
percent across industries.
The top occupations reported as difficult to fill from health care and social
assistance employers included highly
trained medical professionals like
physical and occupational therapists
and registered nurses; entry level
medical positions like nursing assistants and medical secretaries; and an
array of social assistance vacancies,
including preschool teachers and
teacher assistants, and social workers.
Graph 7
Comparing Shares of Vacancies by Industry
Health Care and Social Assistance
Manufacturing
Management, Administrative, and Waste Services
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
All Vacancies
Difficult-to-Fill Vacancies
Transportation, Warehousing, and Utilities
Retail Trade
Other Services
Construction
Leisure and Hospitality
0%
5%
10%
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15%
20%
25%
Two-Fifths of Oregon’s Job Vacancies Are Difficult to Fill
Reasons for difficulty are spread
across the board in manufacturing. A lack of technical skills was
cited in 17 percent of responses.
Employer location was cited in
12 percent of responses. Lack of
work experience was also more of
an issue in manufacturing, mentioned in 18 percent of responses.
Among the responses citing technical skills, employers mentioned
welding, forklift operation, a need
for skilled electricians, and a need
for engineering degrees. A handful of responses also mentioned
technical skills in concert with
management or leadership experience and skills – manufacturing
employers were the only ones to
specifically cite this combination
as a barrier to filling positions.
The top occupations reported as
difficult to fill by manufacturing
employers illustrate the diversity of the products produced in
Oregon, with several occupations focused on production of
agricultural and food products,
as well as mechanical engineers
and software developers from the
state’s high-tech industry.
The management, administrative, and waste services industry
is diverse, including such operations as landscaping, security
and temporary help services, as
well as the business headquarters that make up the “management” component. Employers
in this industry reported a lack
July 2013
Graph 8
Reasons for Difficult-to-Fill Vacancies Vary by
Industry
Health Care and Social Assistance
Manufacturing
Management, Administrative, and Waste Services
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
Transportation, Warehousing, and Utilities
Retail Trade
Other Services
Construction
Leisure and Hospitality
Financial Activities
Wholesale Trade
Information
Natural Resources and Mining
Private Educational Services
Grand Total
0%
20%
40%
Unfavorable working conditions
Lack of qualified candidates
Lack of work experience
Other
60%
80%
100%
Lack of applicants
Graph 9
Reasons for Difficult-to-Fill Vacancies in Health Care
High education
requirements
7%
Unfavorable working
conditions
28%
Top Health Care and Social
Assistance Difficult-to-Fill
Occupations
• Nursing Assistants
• Preschool Teachers, Except Special
Education
• Registered Nurses
• Personal Care Aides
• Teacher Assistants
• Physical Therapists
• Occupational Therapists
• Medical Secretaries
• Massage Therapists
• Child, Family, and School Social
Workers
Lack of applicants
20%
Lack of certification
4%
Lack of qualified
candidates
8%
Other
13%
Low wages
2%
Location
5%
Lack of work Lack of training
experience
2%
7%
of qualified candidates (20%) and
unfavorable working conditions
(19%) as barriers to hiring. In addition to these common reasons, low
wages stood out, accounting for 17
percent of the reasons provided in
this industry, compared with just 4
percent across all industries. Lack
Lack of soft skills
0%
Lack of technical
skills
4%
of certification was also more important in this industry, cited in 11 percent
of responses.
Professional, scientific, and technical
services had a large share of difficultto-fill vacancies for which employers
cited a lack of qualified candidates
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7
Two-Fifths of Oregon’s Job Vacancies Are Difficult to Fill
July 2013
Graph 10
Reasons for Difficult-to-Fill Vacancies in Manufacturing
Unfavorable working
conditions
6%
Other
3%
High education
requirements
0%
Low wages
7%
Lack of applicants
6%
Lack of certification
3%
Lack of qualified
candidates
15%
Location
12%
Lack of soft skills
6%
Lack of work
experience
18%
• Graders and Sorters, Agricultural
Products
• Sales Representatives, Wholesale and
Manufacturing, Except Technical and
Scientific Products
• Software Developers, Applications
• Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and
Trimmers
• Mechanical Engineers
• Cuttters and Trimmers, Hand
Electricians
• Maintenance Workers, Machinery
• First-Line Supervisors of Production
and Operating Workers
• Production Workers, All Other
Lack of technical
skills
17%
Lack of training
7%
(32%). Lack of applicants (21%) and
lack of work experience (20%) were
other major reasons.
Top Manufacturing Difficult-to-Fill
Occupations
ers reported both of these conditions
for a single vacancy.
vacancies, followed by transportation
and material moving, and healthcare
practitioners and technical occupations. Installation, maintenance, and
repair occupations and education,
training, and library occupations
reported greater-than-average shares
of difficult-to-fill vacancies. In contrast,
Which Occupation Groups are
Transportation, warehousing and utiliDifficult to Fill?
ties is another industry that reported
Production occupations accounted
more than its share of difficult-to-fill
for the largest share of difficult-to-fill
vacancies. More than 80 percent of
the difficult-to-fill vacancies in
this industry came from two
Graph 11
occupations: heavy and tractortrailer truck drivers accounted
Reasons for Difficult-to-Fill Vacancies in Transportation,
for 51 percent; and bus drivers
Warehousing, and Utilities
(school or special client) made
Lack of applicants
up another 30 percent.
5%
Unfavorable working conditions
were much more prevalent in
transportation, warehousing, and
utilities than across the board,
accounting for 32 percent of
responses compared with 18
percent across industries. A lack
of qualified candidates was also
a big issue, cited in 19 percent of
cases. Soft skills are a big issue
in transportation, warehousing,
and utilities. More than one-fifth
of responses from this industry
cited a soft-skills issue as the difficulty in hiring. The biggest softskill issues cited by the industry
were the ability to pass a drug
test and having a clean driving
record. In many cases, employ8
Unfavorable working
conditions
32%
Lack of certification
5%
Lack of qualified
candidates
19%
Other
1%
Low wages
0%
Location
1%
Lack of work
experience
13%
Lack of training
1%
Lack of soft skills
21%
Lack of technical
skills
2%
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Two-Fifths of Oregon’s Job Vacancies Are Difficult to Fill
office and administrative support, personal care and service,
and sales occupations reported
lower shares of difficult-to-fill
vacancies.
Five occupation groups (the five
at the top of Graph 12) each
had more than 1,000 difficult-tofill vacancies. Let’s look at the
details for those groups.
Production occupations reported
the most difficult-to-fill vacancies
of any occupation group. The
usual suspects accounted for
about 60 percent of the reasons
given, with unfavorable working
conditions and lack of work experience cited most often. Low
wages, lack of technical skills,
and lack of soft skills are also
hampering hiring in production
occupations to a more significant degree than the average
across occupations.
Transportation and material
moving occupations reported
difficulty resulting from unfavorable working conditions, cited in
28 percent of responses. Soft
skills were another big issue
for these occupations, with 20
percent of responses mentioning them. Lack of certification
was mentioned by 9 percent, a
higher share than the 5 percent
across all occupations.
In healthcare practitioners and
technical occupations, employers
reported a lack of applicants in
two-fifths of difficult-to-fill vacancies. Another 12 percent reported high education requirements
– a much higher share than the 2
percent across the board.
Among sales and related
vacancies, a lack of applicants
makes up the largest share of
the reasons reported (19%).
Low wages accounted for 13
percent. Lack of technical skills and
lack of training are more important to
this group, although they made up just
9 percent and 6 percent of responses,
respectively.
A lack of qualified candidates was the
dominant reason for difficulty filling
July 2013
Graph 12
Comparing Shares of Vacancies by Occupation Group
Production
Transportation and Material Moving
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical
Sales and Related
Installation, Maintenance, and Repair
Office and Administrative Support
Construction and Extraction
Personal Care and Service
Health Care Support
All Vacancies
Education, Training, and Library
Difficult-to-Fill Vacancies
Business and Financial
Food Preparation and Serving
Management
Computer and Mathematical
0%
5%
10%
15%
Graph 13
Reasons for Difficult-to-Fill Vacancies Vary by
Occupation Group
Production
Transportation and Material Moving
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical
Sales and Related
Installation, Maintenance, and Repair
Office and Administrative Support
Construction and Extraction
Personal Care and Service
Health Care Support
Education, Training, and Library
Business and Financial
Food Preparation and Serving
Management
Computer and Mathematical
Grand Total
Unfavorable working conditions
Lack of work experience
0%
20%
40%
Lack of qualified candidates
60%
80%
Lack of applicants
100%
Other
vacancies among installation, maintenance, and repair occupations, accounting for 27 percent of responses.
Lack of work experience was next,
with 18 percent of responses. Lack of
training accounted for 7 percent, twice
the average 3 percent share for that
reason.
High- and Mid-Wage Vacancies
More Difficult
Employers seem to struggle to fill
both mid-wage and high-wage jobs,
while jobs with the lowest wages are
the least likely to be difficult to fill.
Vacancies paying less than $10 per
hour made up one-third of the total
Quality Information. Informed Choices. www.QualityInfo.org
9
Two-Fifths of Oregon’s Job Vacancies Are Difficult to Fill
vacancies, but fewer than 20
percent of the difficult-to-fill
vacancies. On the other hand,
vacancies paying between $15
and $25 per hour accounted for
18 percent of total vacancies, but
a full 25 percent of the difficult-tofill vacancies. About 12 percent
of all vacancies paid more than
$25 per hour, but 16 percent
of difficult-to-fill vacancies paid
more than $25 per hour.
Unfavorable working conditions makes up a solid share of
the reasons provided for lower
wage vacancies. For vacancies
paying $8.80 to $9.99 per hour,
unfavorable working conditions was cited in 24 percent
of responses. Among reasons
grouped in the “other” category
in Graph 16, 11 percent cited
low wages and 10 percent cited
a lack of soft skills. About onethird of difficult-to-fill vacancies
paying $10 to $14.99 listed unfavorable working conditions as
the reason for difficulty. Work
experience joins the party for
this group, accounting for one
out of 10 responses.
When it comes to the difficultto-fill vacancies at higher wage
levels, a lack of applicants and
a lack of qualified candidates
become the dominant reasons
for difficulty filling positions.
Conclusion
July 2013
Graph 14
Reasons for Difficult-to-Fill Vacancies in Production
Occupations
Lack of applicants
Unfavorable working
conditions
20%
9%
Lack of certification
1%
Lack of qualified
candidates
13%
Other
8%
Lack of soft skills
9%
Low wages
8%
Lack of technical
skills
8%
Lack of training
0%
Location
6%
Lack of work
experience
18%
Graph 15
Reasons for Difficult-to-Fill Vacancies by Wage Level
$30 and up
$25 through $29.99
$20 through $24.99
$15 through $19.99
In fall 2012, Oregon employers reported difficulty in filling
nearly half of their open positions (44%). Reasons varied by
industry, occupation, education
level and wage level. However,
the most common reasons
were unfavorable working conditions (18%); a lack of qualified candidates (18%); a lack of
applicants (14%); and a lack of
work experience (13%).
This information, combined with other
occupation and education data, can
help policy makers and others better
understand the reasons behind businesses’ difficulties in finding the workers they need. The data are provided
to inform an ongoing conversation
between businesses, policy makers,
10
$10 through $14.99
$8.80 through $9.99
Grand Total
0%
20%
40%
60%
Unfavorable working conditions
Lack of qualified candidates
Lack of work experience
Other
and training providers about the future
of workforce training in Oregon.
Employment Department Research
staff are able and willing to provide additional, more detailed information on
difficult-to-fill vacancies, in response to
specific requests.
80%
100%
Lack of applicants
For more information on findings
reported through the Oregon Job Vacancy Survey, visit the “Publications”
tab on QualityInfo.org, and scroll down
to Oregon Job Vacancies.
Quality Information. Informed Choices. www.QualityInfo.org
WorkSource Oregon
Employment Department
WorkSourceOregon.org
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