More than 31,000 Workers Hired in Oregon Last Holiday Season

When you’re standing in line this week to make a purchase and a cashier opens an extra register, or a salesperson spends extra time helping you find that perfect gift, or a driver helper hops out of the truck to deliver an online order to your doorstep, take a moment to think about those seasonal holiday workers that make your shopping easier.

More than 31,000 people were added last season by businesses in Oregon’s holiday hiring industries. That was more hires than the year before, but fewer hires than the average holiday increase since 2001. The number of holiday hires hovered just above 40,000 in the years leading up to the recession, but fell to a low of 27,200 in 2009, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Local Employment Dynamics program.

We won’t know how this season’s holiday hiring compares with prior years until late in the New Year, but employment forecasts and early estimates suggest holiday hiring will be slightly better than average this year.

For a list of the industries with strong holiday employment patterns and to learn about seasonal holiday hiring in Oregon see Unwrapping Holiday Hiring, written by our state employment economist, Nick Beleiciks.