Women in Oregon's Workforce

The face of Oregon's workforce, and the women in it, has been changing. Compared with the 1970s, Oregon's female workforce is a little older, more educated, and better represented across a wide variety of industries and occupations. The participation of women in Oregon's labor force has grown substantially but is still smaller than Oregon's male workforce. Since the recent recession, men have dealt with higher rates of unemployment than women.

In 2010, there were over 2 million people in Oregon's labor force, of which approximately 47 percent were women and 53 percent were men. Men outnumber women in every age group in Oregon's workforce except one - the 20 to 24 year olds, where women outnumber men by about 8,000 workers. The largest difference in male and female workers is between the ages of 25 and 44 when men outnumber women in Oregon's workforce by over 100,000 workers.

Women's labor force participation has increased since the 1970s, though the rate has leveled off since 2003. Men continue to make up more than half of Oregon's workforce, though the number of women was closer in 2010 than 10 years earlier.

Check out the full article written by our workforce analyst serving Clatsop, Columbia, and Tillamook counties, Shawna Sykes.